Consumers are concerned about the health of animals and the sustainability of animal agriculture. Transparency from farm to consumer is needed. The dairy industry needs to continue the development and use of appropriate milk analysis tools and control systems to maintain consumer trust in the milk production system. For consumers, milk safety is a given. Milk unequivocally needs to be safe and the dairy industry needs to be very open with control systems and systems used to ensure chemical safety of milk. Milk testing for antibiotics and the protocols for isolation and tracking of antibiotic-positive milk is an example of the control system to assure and verify for consumers that milk is safe. Today, consumers are concerned about individual cow health and management practices. Consumers expect each cow’s health to be taken care of and they want assurance there is a system in place to do that, no matter what the milk production management system is, small or large. Intensive milk production systems are likely to be under more scrutiny. This is where new automated milk analysis systems and sensors may be able to address this need. Currently, near infrared analysis to determine fat and protein during milk is available. New rapid milk analysis tools to measure milk fatty acid composition, estimate blood NEFA and blood BHB can be used as indices of cow health. Analytical tools to both improve animal well-being and demonstrate proper care of the health of animals in intensive milk production systems are needed. The status of this technology currently is that many of these tests can be done in a milk testing laboratory. The challenge is to transform these milk analysis tools into a sensor(s) that work in real-time in the milk harvesting system to enable real-time management reactions and control. This will improve the efficiency and sustainability of milk production while providing consumers with a demonstration of what the dairy industry is doing to meet their expectations.