Monitoring grazing behaviour of Sarda cattle using an accelerometer device

摘要

Monitoring grazing behaviour is increasingly important for understanding the relationships between production and welfare of ruminants and their nutrition and management, particularly in extensive livestock systems. Methods of assessing behavioural activity have changed in recent years, favouring automatic recording techniques and information and communication technologies. A recent device (BEHARUM), equipped with a three-axial accelerometer sensor has been developed coupling the use of MEMS and ICT.The sensor, inserted in a halter, measures feeding behaviour by sampling accelerations due to jaw and head movements. Three acceleration values at 1-s intervals are then sent to a nearby server by a LoRa wireless module that can communicate to a remotecomputer via GSM. Calibration and validation approach of the system is ongoing in Sarda cattle reared in natural pasture comparing acceleration data automatically classified in three activities, grazing, ruminating and resting (including other activities) with video-recorded data. A data mining approach followed by multivariate analyses procedures allowed correct assignment of 88.2% of minutes to the three activities (88.8%, 89.7% and 86.1% for grazing, ruminating and resting respectively).