iDDEN at ICAR 2026: A Week of Collaboration, Progress and Data Exchange
The first week of June 2026 important and productive one for iDDEN, combining internal planning, strategic partner discussions and participation in the ICAR Conference 2026 in Verona.
At the beginning of the week, the iDDEN Board met for its mid-year planning and review. We were also pleased to welcome our strategic partners DeLaval, Lely and GEA Farming for an Advisory Committee meeting. These discussions showed encouraging progress: many of the technical challenges raised during our previous meeting in October have since been addressed and jointly resolved. We look forward to sharing more in the coming months about the lessons learned and the practical solutions that were developed together.
The rest of the week, iDDEN took part in the ICAR – International Committee for Animal Recording Conference, a global event bringing together experts and organisations from across the livestock sector. Since its beginnings in 1951 with 10 European countries, ICAR has grown into a worldwide community of more than 130 members across over 60 countries. This year’s conference once again demonstrated how strongly the sector is moving toward digital, data-driven innovation.
Several conference themes were especially relevant for iDDEN.
The ICAR/IDF Sensor Initiative highlighted the growing importance of sensor data for animal welfare, health monitoring and wider use across the dairy value chain.
The Animal Data Exchange Working Group held an open session in which Valerija Volčič from iDDEN and Alexey Shelepaev from Mtech Digital Solutions presented how iDDEN helps make the ADE standard operational in practice. Their presentation focused on the practical tools and implementation approach that allow standardised data exchange to move from concept to day-to-day use.
A number of other technical sessions also showed how rapidly the sector is evolving. Topics ranged from robots and sensors to digital twins, livestock data pipelines, AI-based farm intelligence and methane prediction. Together, these sessions reinforced one central message: the value of data lies not only in collecting it, but in making it available in the right format, at the right time, and under the right agreements.
For iDDEN, the week in Verona confirmed once again why standardised, trusted and scalable data exchange is so important for the future of the dairy sector.
We would like to thank ICAR, the organisers, speakers and all partners for an excellent and inspiring week.
If you would like to explore the conference further, the book of abstracts and presentations is available on the official website:
https://icar2026.it/
