An evaluation of a novel device for measuring eating, rumination, and inactive behaviors in lactating Holstein dairy cattle.

摘要: Abstract Validation of precision dairy-monitoring technologies establishes technology behavioral-monitoring efficacy for research and commercial application. Technology metrics should be associated with behaviors known physiological importance. The objective this project was to evaluate the Nedap SmartTag Neck (Nedap Livestock Management, Groenlo, Netherlands) dairy cow behavior measuring accuracy. measured were eating, ruminating, inactivity. Thirty-six lactating Holstein cows randomly selected from University Kentucky’s Coldstream Dairy Research Herd fitted a Neck. Cows observed by single observer total 4 h per cow, including 2 h after morning milking (0800 h) evening (2000 h), May December 2017. recorded time occurred using synchronized watch (CASIO, CASIO America, Inc., Dover, NJ, USA). hour, minute, second day each compared corresponding measurements. Pearson correlation coefficients (r; CORR procedure; SAS Institute Cary, NC, USA), concordance (CCC; epiR package; R Foundation Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria), Bland–Altman plots (epiR Computing) used determine association between visual observations technology-recorded behaviors. Visually inactive moderately strongly correlated data (CCC ≥ 0.88) showed no bias, indicating high level agreement. In conclusion, accurately monitored inactivity is expected effective in monitoring these cattle or farm settings.