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Abstract

In loose housing of dairy cows there is a need of behaviour studies in respect of where and when individual cows are to scientifically evaluate barn planning and management practises and also to identify cows in need of special attention. The paper describes and evaluates a system for automatic identification and determination of the location of dairy cows. The system consists of video cameras, tags with light emitting diodes (LEDs) that flash in a specific order and a computer with software. The system was evaluated with two tests, an accuracy test and a location ability test. The location ability test involved dairy cows. The accuracy test shows that the average difference between real x-y positions and the x-y positions given by the system is 38.5 cm, with a standard deviation of 17.9 cm. This is a satisfactory accuracy level to determine whether a cow was in a cubicle, at the feeding gate, or in the walking area. The location ability tests with cows in a free stall barn shows that the captured locations ranged from 19% when using 4 cameras per compartment, to 29% when using 12 cameras per compartment. This very low location ability rate can probably be explained by the LEDs, carried by the cows on their collars, tended to slide to either side of the cow’s neck instead of staying on top and also by fitting details breaking the optical sight between camera and the LED. To be useful in scientific behaviour studies in dairy barns the system must therefore be improved and further evaluated by having LEDs on both side of the collar and cameras located minimizing risk of blocking optical sight to the LEDs.

Keywords

identification; location; remote measuring; animal behaviuor; dairy cows

Published in

Title: Precision livestock farming '05
Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference

ECPLF Proceedings. 2nd European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming

SLU Authors

  • Oostra, Huibert

    • Department of Agricultural Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

UKÄ Subject classification

Veterinary Science
Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-548-2_043
  • ISBN: 907699868X

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/6800