The use of collar accelerometers to investigate the activity of dairy natural service bulls

摘要

Knowing more about how natural service sirespartition their time and when to rest them will assist decisionmakers.Natural service sires contribute to the origin of32.4% of the Australian herd recorded cows in 2016(National Herd Improvement Association and AustralianDairy Herd Improvement Scheme, 2016). But despite thissignificant contribution, relatively little is known about howbulls partition their time. This information is important, sinceit can be used to plan periods of rest, or to rotate bull teamsinto and out of the herd. Provision of an optimal bull-to-cowratio and ensuring that those bulls that are sound areadequately rested are important first steps to achieving herdreproductive targets (Morton and Larcombe 2008).