Cattle handling training and moving livestock is absolutely not for the inexperienced soul! In 2021-22, there were 5,032 hospitalised injuries due to livestock. 639 of these incidents were the result of being bitten or struck by cattle! (AIHW, 2024).

Cattle handling can be dangerous for those who don’t have large animal handling experience!

A major problem faced by Dr Mandi Carr, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Animal and Veterinary Science at the University of Adelaide, was that students were often showing up to cattle handling practical lessons with little to no experience in moving large animals.

To address this, Think Digital and Dr Mandi Carr teamed up to develop CattleVR, a cutting-edge Virtual Reality (VR) tool that enables students to experience dangerous cattle handling scenarios, fail safely, and learn through repetition.

Dr Mandi Carr has found CattleVR to be a particularly effective tool for first-year university students that have little to no experience. Through immersing students in the Virtual Reality cattle handling training tool before the real life practical sessions, students are well-prepared, know what to expect, and are more eager to put their skills into practice when they actually enter the yards.

Another one of Dr Mandi Carr’s techniques involves bringing a VR headset to use next to the yards. Sometimes, she will observe a student lacking in skill and/or confidence when in the yards. In this instance, she will get the student to go back into the CattleVR simulation, revise the essential cattle handling skills in VR, and then go back to the real life yards and put those skills to use. Talk about innovating the classroom!

Dr Mandi Carr will sometimes ask a student to break away from the practical, revise cattle handling skills in CattleVR, and then send them back into the real life yards. Talk about ag classroom innovation!

“From one educator to another, CattleVR will allow you to innovate the classroom, have better student engagement, and also has benefits for the animals.”

– Dr Mandi Carr (Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide School of Animal and Veterinary Science)

CattleVR is ready and available to be used in your classroom. Don’t miss the opportunity to innovate your classroom, increase the skills of your students, and improve safety & welfare for both students and animals. If you’re interested, contact us or send an email directly to us at [email protected] and we’ll sort out the rest!