Occupational Safety and Health with Technological Developments in Livestock Farms: A Literature Review

Marie A. Hayden (), Menekse S. Barim, Darlene L. Weaver, K. C. Elliott, Michael A. Flynn and Jennifer M. Lincoln
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Marie A. Hayden: Division of Field Studies and Engineering, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45213, USA
Menekse S. Barim: Division of Field Studies and Engineering, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45213, USA
Darlene L. Weaver: Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
K. C. Elliott: Office of the Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA
Michael A. Flynn: Division of Science Integration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45226, USA
Jennifer M. Lincoln: Office of the Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45213, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-11

Abstract: In recent decades, there have been considerable technological developments in the agriculture sector to automate manual processes for many factors, including increased production demand and in response to labor shortages/costs. We conducted a review of the literature to summarize the key advances from installing emerging technology and studies on robotics and automation to improve agricultural practices. The main objective of this review was to survey the scientific literature to identify the uses of these new technologies in agricultural practices focusing on new or reduced occupational safety risks affecting agriculture workers. We screened 3248 articles with the following criteria: (1) relevance of the title and abstract with occupational safety and health; (2) agriculture technologies/applications that were available in the United States; (3) written in English; and (4) published 2015–2020. We found 624 articles on crops and harvesting and 80 articles on livestock farming related to robotics and automated systems. Within livestock farming, most (78%) articles identified were related to dairy farms, and 56% of the articles indicated these farms were using robotics routinely. However, our review revealed gaps in how the technology has been evaluated to show the benefits or potential hazards to the safety and well-being of livestock owners/operators and workers.

Keywords: agriculture livestock; robotics; sensors; computer vision; artificial intelligence; occupational safety and health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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