Dairy cows Precision Farming

Question 1

What is precision livestock farming

Answer 1

the use of technology to automatically monitor livestock, their products, and the farming environment in real-time, to aid farm management, through supplying the farmer with relevant information on which to base management decisions

Question 2

What sorts of PLF technologies are used on dairy farms

Answer 2

• precoursers date to 1970s = individual electronic milk feeders
• 1980s = automatic behaviour based oestrus detection systems
• now technologies can measure onset of calving or predict which animals have infectious disease or which will suffer from transition disease

Question 3

Steps for data colection using PLF

Answer 3

• static and animal munted sensors
  e. g. leg sensor, rumen bolus, neck sensor, ear tag camera
• sensor-derived behaviour and physiology data
  e. g. body condition, eating, position, body temp, lameness, drinking
• data intergrated as part of automated welfare assessment
  e. g. hunger/thiirst, discomfort, pain/injury/disease, social interaction, agression/fear

Question 4

Robots in farm environment

Answer 4

• automated milk feeding for calves
• milking robot
• robotic scraper
• feed pusher robot

Question 5

PLF for lameness detection in dairy cows

Answer 5

• tri-axial accelerometers
• pressure sensors in floor provide data on hoof placement and leg pressure
• detection of stride to stride inconsistencies can allow for the diagnosis of lameness in its early stages
• Ultrasonic foot-bath sensors can also be installed to monitor claw shape with the goal of maintaining good claw health
• Vision-based systems in development (e.g. tracking hoof location data)

Question 6

Why do we need PLF

Answer 6

• Even trained observers underestimate prevalence of lame animals, based upon visual observation alone
• missed oppertunity for early intervension or treament
• (interobserver lamensss score test on wk 5 tutorial powerpoint)