[Presence-evoking virtual reality is increasingly being used for training workers; here’s an interesting example of the breadth of such applications in a story from Pennsylvania’s Lancaster Farming. The original version of the story includes a link to earlier coverage about the prospects of using augmented reality to “speed up and improve veterinary care” and repair farm equipment. It would be useful to compare the effectiveness of the proposed VR training with more traditional online resources such as those offered by The University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension Dairy Program. –Matthew]

[Image: People playing a virtual reality video game at Ag Progress Days. Credit: Adrian Barragan]

Training Your Workforce: Virtual Reality as an Aid in Livestock Care

By Dr. Adrian Barragan
May 29, 2025

Farm employees working with our animals are the ones in charge of the main practices focused on covering animals’ basic needs, which directly translate to animal health and performance, and therefore the success of the farm.

Having knowledgeable, skilled workers is key for optimal animal welfare and profitability in dairy farms. However, finding, developing and training skilled workers in the dairy industry has become increasingly challenging nowadays. It is not uncommon to see on dairy farms that entry-level jobs are filled by people without any agricultural background. In a recent study at our lab, where we interviewed 150 dairy employees, we found that entry-level workers are generally younger, male, immigrants, and Hispanic. This worker demography could be associated with a lack of geographic ties, which may make it easier for them to leave in search of better-paid jobs, which is reflected in high employee turnover rates.

This scenario highlights the importance of having a well-thought-out personnel management program that focuses on fostering a positive work environment and performing continuous training. As we know, entry-level tasks on a dairy farm are not equivalent to low-skill work. Workers must understand complex concepts behind these practices, such as animal physiology and disease epidemiology, which allows them to understand the “whys” behind common practices needed for tasks associated with animal handling and milking procedures.

According to a survey by the FARM Workforce Development Program, only 29.9% of dairy farm employees reported receiving formal training. Training is most commonly provided at the time of hiring (76%), with only 23.4% of farms offering annual retraining sessions. These numbers reveal a significant gap in employees’ retraining, which is key to refreshing their knowledge and avoiding job drifting.

We can’t ignore that training dairy farm workers effectively presents dairy farms with several challenges. First of all, it is a time-consuming process in a setting where time is the most scarce resource. Second, there are often communication issues. The latest national trends reported that more than 50% of agricultural workers are immigrants, with 80% of them being able to communicate only in Spanish. In the study mentioned above, out of the 150 employees we interviewed in 10 dairy farms, 111 employees (74%) reported that their primary language was Spanish, and they had a very low proficiency in English. Additionally, many workers may have limited basic education and reading comprehension skills, making traditional written training materials less effective. It has been reported that oral presentation with visual aids (e.g., pictures, videos) coupled with hands-on demonstrations may be the best training approach for this population of workers.

While university Extension programs and private industry strive to support dairy farms by offering employee training, finding bilingual educators with technical expertise can often be difficult. This scenario, coupled with remote access to farms and long driving distances, makes it difficult for farmers to maintain consistent and high-quality training for their employees. To overcome some of these challenges, one promising solution may be the use of virtual reality technologies. Virtual reality headsets are devices that provide users with an immersive 360-degree experience, allowing them to engage in a simulated environment.

Our lab, in conjunction with the Penn State College of Ag IT team, has been exploring VR technologies as a tool for educational purposes in different settings, such as youth educational events and university-level lectures, developing 360-degree immersive videos and video games to create more realistic scenarios on common real-life situations to better prepare students for the real world. We have found an increased engagement with activities and assignments, and a higher level of satisfaction across all different groups.

Currently, we are developing VR training modules specifically for entry-level dairy farm workers such as milkers and maternity area employees. In a pilot study involving VR-based milking routine training, we surveyed 22 participating employees from three large commercial dairy farms in central Pennsylvania. The survey included questions related to their previous experience using this technology, satisfaction with the VR-based videos used in the study, and their preferences for training methods. Notably, 86% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the VR headset would enhance their learning experience. However, 70% of participants reported that they would still prefer traditional hands-on training. Nevertheless, when we asked them if they would find it beneficial for their learning to combine hands-on training with VR-based training, 90% of employees agreed with this statement.

These findings suggest that while VR-based training cannot entirely replace traditional hands-on training, it can serve as a valuable tool to add to these training settings, especially when retraining employees, where short refreshment materials are offered. Virtual reality-based training not only may offer engaging, consistent and bilingual training experiences, but also could be accessed remotely without the need for an educator to travel to the farm, since these videos can be utilized on smartphone devices with inexpensive cardboard headsets. All of this makes this technology highly applicable for farm settings, and as more materials are developed, there may be an increase in its use in the years to come.

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Graduate assistant Raul Sorto contributed to this report.