Dairy Goat Research Facility: Revealing Process & Provoking Interactions

Abstract

The dairy goat industry in Ontario is in need of benchmarking data on the raising and caring for goats resulting in better welfare and production. The power of collective data cannot be overstated to benefit and advance the industry as seen in Ontario’s dairy, swine and poultry industries. The goal of this thesis is to create a framework for the design behind a research facility dedicated to dairy goats with the animals as the main priority. As a dairy goat farmer and an architecture graduate student, I believe my experiences and knowledge in agriculture and architecture have given me the tools to understand the particularities of goats and how their environment may affect them. The research studies on goat behaviour and welfare analyzed in this thesis, encompass a range of aspects from understanding social needs, and evaluating adaptable behaviour, to assessing the performance characteristics of materials and housing components. The emerging designs for the Dairy Goat Research Facility embody an integration of goat behaviour research, farm culture and industrialization, and sustainability.