A validation of technologies monitoring dairy cow feeding, ruminating, and lying behaviors

The objective of this study was to evaluate commercially available precision dairy technologies against direct visual observations of feeding, rumination, and lying behaviors. Primiparous (n=24) and multiparous (n=24) lactating Holstein dairy cattle (mean ± standard deviation; 223.4±117.8 d in milk, producing 29.2±8.2kg of milk/d) were fitted with 6 different triaxial accelerometer technologies evaluating cow behaviors at or before freshening. The AfiAct Pedometer Plus (Afimilk, Kibbutz Afikim, Israel) was used to monitor lying time. The CowManager SensOor (Agis, Harmelen, Netherlands) monitored rumination and feeding time. The HOBO Data Logger (HOBO Pendant G Acceleration Data Logger, Onset Computer Corp., Pocasset, MA) monitored lying time. The CowAlert IceQube (IceRobotics Ltd., Edinburgh, Scotland) monitored lying time. The Smartbow (Smartbow GmbH, Jutogasse, Austria) monitored rumination time. The Track A Cow (ENGS, Rosh Pina, Israel) monitored lying time and time spent around feeding areas for the calculation of feeding time. Over 8 d, 6 cows per day were visually observed for feeding, rumination, and lying behaviors for 2 h after morning and evening milking. The time of day was recorded when each behavior began and ended. These times were used to generate the length of time behaviors were visually observed. Pearson correlations (r; calculated using the CORR procedure of SAS Version 9.3, SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC), and concordance correlations (CCC; calculated using the epiR package of R version 3.1.0, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) evaluated association between visual observations and technology-recorded behaviors. Visually recorded feeding behaviors were moderately correlated with the CowManager SensOor (r=0.88, CCC=0.82) and Track A Cow (r=0.93, CCC=0.79) monitors. Visually recorded rumination behaviors were strongly correlated with the Smartbow (r=0.97, CCC=0.96), and weakly correlated with the CowManager SensOor (r=0.69, CCC=0.59). Visually recorded lying behaviors were strongly correlated with the AfiAct Pedometer Plus (r >0.99, CCC >0.99), CowAlert IceQube (r >0.99, CCC >0.99), and Track A Cow (r >0.99, CCC >0.99). The HOBO Data Loggers were moderately correlated (r >0.83, CCC >0.81) with visual observations. Based on these results, the evaluated precision dairy monitoring technologies accurately monitored dairy cattle behavior.