Recording of dairy cows behaviour with wireless accelerometers

The daily behaviour of dairy cows reflects the health and well-being status. The behaviour can be monitored with accelerometers (used as a tilt sensor to measure the angle) in a wireless sensor network. The angle of a leg reflects the lying or standing behaviour, the angle of the head might reflect the eating behaviour. An experiment was carried out at an experimental farm during 50 days. Six cows were equipped with two 2D accelerometers, one attached to the neck and one attached to the right hind leg. The accelerometers were attached to wireless sensor nodes. The acceleration of the neck and leg was recorded every halve minute (average of seven measurements with 1 Hz measuring frequency). Based on calibration measurements, the acceleration of the leg and the neck were both transformed to the angle. A cow was standing when the angle of the leg was more than 45°, otherwise lying. The method to transform the acceleration to angle and behaviour appears to be appropriate, it is possible to monitor the cow's behaviour with a wireless sensor network equipped with accelerometers

Haalbaarheid precisielandbouw voor de melkveehouderij

Focus on the concepts of Precision Agriculture and Precision Livestock Farming and their potential contribution to the 'innovation agenda' of the Dutch dairy sector. A few initiatives are introduced

Trustworthiness assessment of cow behaviour data collected in a wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks can be used for automated cow monitoring, e.g. for behaviour and locomotion monitoring. Sensor data should only be used when they can be trusted. The trustworthiness of sensor data can be assessed in a framework, from the acquisition at the node to their delivery to business applications, including any intermediary routing and processing. The trustworthiness assessment method has been evaluated with sensor data collected during one of the experiments within the WASP project. Sensor data are not trusted when the trustworthiness gets below a threshold. An alert is generated then and it is possible to find the cause by tracing back the trust of composing elements. The trustworthiness assessment method results in the detection of problems with nodes (e.g. detached node or exhausted battery). Most of these problems can be classified as true and most of them were not notified on the farm. Therefore trustworthiness assessment is worthwhile to improve automated cow status monitoring

Koe in beeld : Waar is ze en wat doet ze?

Melkveebedrijven worden steeds groter. Deze schaalvergroting mag niet leiden tot minder aandacht voor de gezondheid en het welzijn van de koeien. Daarnaast stelt de samenleving steeds meer eisen aan de veiligheid en kwaliteit van product en productie-omgeving. Draadloze sensortechnologie maakt het mogelijk veel informatie over de productieomgeving (klimaat, weer, huisvesting) en de productiefactoren (dieren, voer, grasland) vast te leggen. Zo wordt het mogelijk diergedrag beter te begrijpen, dieren met gezondheidsproblemen te signaleren en de beweiding te optimalisere

Sensor signaleert naderende geboorte

Met de nieuwe generatie draadloze sensoren, die momenteel in ontwikkeling is en langzaam voor de praktijk beschikbaar komt, kunnen steeds meer signalen van het individuele dier automatisch worden vastgelegd, zoals een naderende geboort

Interviews met organisaties van belanghebbenden over de methodiek voor een positieflijst voor zoogdieren

Summary of the results of interviews about a model for establishing a list of mammals that are allowed to be kept legally held with representatives of organizations involved in keeping (exotic) companion animals

Recording and analysis of locomotion in dairy cows with 3D accelerometers

An automated method for lameness detection can be an alternative for detection by regular observations. Accelerometers attached to a leg of the dairy cow can be used to record the locomotion of a dairy cow. In an experiment the 3D acceleration of the right hind leg during walking of three dairy cows was measured and analysed. Nodes with a 3D accelerometer in a wireless sensor network were applied to measure with a frequency of 50 Hz. After data filtering, the data analysis was in two steps: first step detection and secondly the determination of step parameters. Variance analysis was used for step detection. For each step the parameters step length and step time were calculated. The steps and step parameters can be used in future research for gait analysis of lame and non-lame cows. The aim of this paper is to describe the collection and analysis of data in this experiment and to assess the possibilities for gait analysis. It can be concluded that the application of accelerometers in a wireless sensor network gives promising results. Step detection is possible and step parameters can be derived

Advisering voor vervolg positieflijst zoogdieren

This report describes a quick scan of the most important behavioral requirements of 100 mammal species, as a first step in the assessment procedure for admittance of this species to a list of species that are allowed to be kept legally

Systematiek voor het opstellen van de positieflijst voor zoogdieren

Description of system for transparent assessment whether keeping an animal species in a certain normative surrounding is acceptable