Develop a video monitoring system for dairy estrus detection at night

摘要

Milk, one of the important human foods, can not only be drunken directly but also be processed to produce more products. It is a critical issue for owners of ranches to effectively manage the pregnancy, reproduction, and milking of dairy cows. In current ranches, artificial insemination is performed to make dairy cows pregnant. Accurate estrus detection of dairy cows is essential for the success in artificial insemination. The traditional method to detect estrus of dairy cows is visual observation, whose success rate largely depends on the observers' experience and the frequency of observation. Therefore, several direct-contact monitor systems have been developed. But these sensors which directly contact the skin of dairy cows induce their discomfort. In this study, a non-contact video monitor system will be developed to avoid the contact-related discomfort. Infrared cameras will be used to record the imaging of dairy cows at night, when the frequency of estrus is the highest. Then the dairy cows with estrus-specific behaviors will be identified by imaging processing. Finally only simple judgments by owners are required to decide whether artificial insemination will be performed.