Advances in precision livestock farming

Description

The livestock sector is facing increasing pressure to develop more ‘climate-smart’ methods that can be used to prevent the onset of major diseases, whilst also monitoring the efficiency and environmental impact of livestock production. Advances in Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) provides a comprehensive review of the recent advances in the development of precision livestock technologies that use continuous, automated, real-time monitoring of animal traits to improve health, welfare and behaviour. The collection tackles the major issues faced by the dairy sector (mastitis, lameness and metabolic disorders) and how PLF technologies can decrease the likelihood of such diseases occurring. Half Title Page Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Series list Introduction Part 1 Data collection and analysis Part 2 Applications Acknowledgement Part 1: Data collection and analysis Chapter 1 Developments in on-animal sensors for monitoring livestock 1 Introduction 2 Components of an on-animal sensor system 3 Form factor and deployment mode 4 Sensors 5 Energy management for on-animal sensors 6 Communication and data transfer 7 Data management, reduction and analysis 8 Applications of on-animal sensors 9 Future trends 10 References Chapter 2 Developments in thermal imaging techniques to assess livestock health 1 Introduction 2 The use of thermal imaging techniques to monitor animal health 3 Accounting for ambient conditions 4 The use of infrared thermography for animal health monitoring 5 The development of infrared thermography technologies 6 Improving diagnostic accuracy 7 Case study: using infrared thermography to identify bovine respiratory disease 8 Conclusions 9 Future trends in research 10 Where to look for further information 11 References Chapter 3 Developments in acoustic techniques to assess livestock health 1 Introduction 2 Animal vocalizations and sounds produced 3 Sound recording, features and digital signal processing 4 Sound applications for monitoring of pigs 5 Sound applications for monitoring poultry 6 Sound applications for monitoring cattle 7 From science to practical applications 8 Status of the current sound applications for pigs, poultry and cattle 9 Conclusion 10 Where to look for further information 11 References Chapter 4 Machine vision techniques to monitor behaviour and health in precision livestock farming 1 Introduction 2 Devices for data acquisition in computer vision–based systems 3 Animal species and tasks analysed in computer vision systems for precision livestock farming 4 Key elements of computer vision–based systems: initialisation 5 Key elements of computer vision–based systems: tracking – image segmentation 6 Key elements of computer vision–based systems: tracking – video object segmentation 7 Key elements of computer vision–based systems: feature extraction 8 Key elements of computer vision–based systems: pose estimation and behaviour recognition 9 Case studies of precision livestock farming applications based on traditional computer vision techniques 10 Advances in computer vision techniques: deep learning 11 Case studies of precision livestock farming applications based on deep learning techniques 12 Conclusion 13 References Chapter 5 Developments in activity and location technologies for monitoring cattle movement and behaviour 1 Introduction 2 Activity and location technologies 3 Adoption of activity and location technologies 4 Integration of technology into the farm system and industry 5 Future trends in research and development 6 Conclusions 7 References Chapter 6 Developments in data analysis for decision-making in precision livestock farming systems 1 Introduction 2 Data science and data mining 3 Machine learning 4 Conclusion and future trends 5 Where to look for further information 6 Acknowledgements 7 References Part 2: Applications Chapter 7 Monitoring and control of livestock housing conditions using precision livestock farming techniques 1 Introduction 2 Key variables affecting livestock housing conditions 3 Automated monitoring of animals and their environment 4 The use of precision livestock farming technologies to monitor dairy cattle housing 5 The use of precision livestock farming technologies to monitor poultry housing 6 The use of precision livestock farming technologies to monitor pig housing 7 Conclusion and future trends 8 References Chapter 8 Developments in individual-animal feed efficiency monitoring systems for livestock 1 Introduction 2 Materials and methods 3 Wearable sensors and electronic scales 4 Camera sensors 5 Image analysis algorithms 6 Evaluating feed-intake measurement systems 7 Future trends and conclusion 8 Acknowledgements 9 Declaration of interest and ethics statement 10 References Chapter 9 Developments in automated systems for monitoring livestock health: mastitis 1 Introduction 2 Components of mastitis sensor systems 3 Commercially available sensors 4 Future developments: biosensors 5 Future developments: specific mastitis situations and improving algoritms 6 Conclusion 7 Where to look for further information 8 References Chapter 10 Developments in automated systems for monitoring livestock health: lameness 1 Introduction 2 Lameness and its impacts 3 Lameness and behaviour 4 Non-automated detection of lameness 5 Automated detection of lameness using non-wearable technology 6 Automated detection of lameness using animal-mounted accelerometers 7 Automated detection of lameness using spatial positioning systems 8 Conclusion and future trends 9 Where to look for further information 10 References Chapter 11 Developments in automated monitoring of livestock fertility/pregnancy 1 Introduction 2 The oestrous cycle in dairy cows 3 Oestrus detection, pregnancy diagnosis and reproductive performance 4 Methods for oestrus detection in cows 5 Conclusion and future trends in research 6 Where to look for further information 7 References Chapter 12 Advances in automatic milking systems 1 Introduction 2 Cow breed 3 Milk yield and quality 4 Feeding concentrate supplementation in automatic milking systems 5 Grazing and grassland management for automatic milking systems 6 Benchmarking and optimising performance using key performance indicators 7 Cow behaviour 8 Training of cows and transition to automatic milking 9 Health and welfare management of cows 10 People and the automatic milking system 11 Impact on labour requirements 12 Use of resources 13 Economics 14 A place for mobile automatic milking systems? 15 Current and future focus of automatic milking research 16 Conclusion 17 Where to look for further information 18 References Chapter 13 Developments in monitoring grazing behaviour and automated grazing management in extensive systems 1 Introduction 2 The animal/pasture interface 3 Active precision livestock farming management of pasture and animal 4 Alternative monitoring technologies 5 Case study: virtual fencing for sensitive environments 6 Conclusion 7 Future trends in research 8 Where to look for further information 9 References Index