This research maps the increase in milk production of the dutch dairy cows and the role of data and AI within this. Showing how the evolution of the dairy cow has become tightly interwoven with digital systems and algorithms.
In 1964, Christina became the first cow in the Netherlands to produce 100,000 kilograms of milk in her lifetime, a remarkable achievement at the time, now considered almost standard. Since then, milk production per cow has risen rapidly. This shift is a result of decades of technological development, data collection, and algorithmic selection that have reshaped the Dutch dairy industry.
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Within farms in the Netherlands, cows are continuously monitored. Sensors track their food and water intake, movement, thermal patterns, fertility cycles, and milk production. This information is stored digitally and made accessible through management systems and mobile applications, allowing farmers to monitor their animals closely. With this data algorithms calculate which cows should reproduce and which bull genetics offer the most profitable combinations. Resulting in cows that mature faster and produce more milk, generation after generation.
CHRISTINA_1964.TO(_2095)
2023-2025
photo by Urša Prek
The installation, shaped like a milking carousel, guides visitors through three scenarios: past, present, and future. It centers on the phenomenon of the hundred-tonner; cows that produce more than 100,000 kilograms of milk during their lifetime.
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Throughout the exhibition space you can find traces of ecological distress caused by the increasing milk production; Cows that produce more milk also emit more nitrogen, particularly in the form of ammonia. This intensification contributes to ecological shifts in the surrounding landscape. Nitrogen-loving plants such as nettles and brambles begin to dominate, slowly displacing other species and reducing biodiversity. Within the installation, these changes appear subtly: shadows of plants spread across surfaces; nettles grow on milk glasses. The environmental impact becomes visible as a quiet but persistent presence.
Archival footage reveals how production has increased since the early twentieth century.
The future scenario of the installation speculates about the future. Using images of top-producing cows new speculative cows were generated. By training the model on this curated database, digitally “perfected” cows emerge, bodies shaped entirely by statistical desirability. This future scenario exaggerates the logic already present: a breeding process increasingly governed by data, where biological life is calculated, predicted, and redesigned.
What happens if optimization continues at its current pace?
When a cow achieves the 100.000 kg milk production, the farmer receives a certificate. Throughout the exhibition (of one month) the new certificates of the hundred-tonner cows where added. Making visible the ever-increasing 'honderdtonners'.
photo by Urša Prek
The project connects multiple layers: technological innovation, economic pressure, animal bodies, and ecological transformation. It reflects on how care is redefined within a capital-driven agricultural system. Many farmers express deep commitment to their animals, yet their practices are shaped by efficiency, competition, and survival within neoliberal market structures. Not only cows, but also farmers themselves, are entangled in systems that demand constant growth.
Soundscape performance during the opening event by Floris
photo by Urša Prek
Details from the exhibition space
The project was made possible thanks to Kunstgarage Franx zoetermeer, TAC Eindhoven, Farmer Renee Meijers