Traditionally dairy cows have been housed in tie stalls in Europe, which provided an abundance of beneficial close contact with humans. A more common method of housing dairy cows is to loose house them in groups. This provides them with enough space to avoid humans; thus the cows become less habituated to humans, which cause the cows to become fearful of humans and difficult to handle. The problem with fear is it is a negative feeling and can cause stress, and it is extremely undesirable to have associated with the presence of humans. The fear of humans can be remedied by providing the cows with regular exposure to positive contact with humans, and is most effective in young calves. Another change in the dairy industry in Europe is the rising number of cows raised on each farm. The increase in workload forces the farmer to hire stockpeople, which are difficult to find and quite costly to employ when compared to the price paid for milk or meat. Technological developments have helped remedy the problem of needing to find qualified employees, but technology further reduces the amount of contact the cows have with humans. For example, there are now reliable automatic machines that are able to detect health problems, a practice once carried out by the stock person. Thus, individual care and attention continues to decline as its value continually increases. What is known, is that cows will tend to avoid contact with humans unless there is food involved. It is also known that to improve the welfare of cattle, they need to have some form of positive human interaction. What needs to be determined is that if a method of group handling can be incorporated and successful, or will producers need to find a way to provide individual contact with all the cows in their herd. Research also needs to be conducted to determine the effects of group housing and the effect that group size can have on human-cattle interactions.