GPS Tracking to Monitor the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Cattle Behavior and Their Relationship with Feces Distribution

Area of Science:

• Agroecology
• Animal Science
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Agrosilvopastoral systems like dehesas face sustainability challenges.
• Understanding grazing impacts is crucial for environmental protection.
• Precision livestock farming (PLF) offers tools for monitoring and management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess GPS collar data for characterizing cattle dung distribution in dehesa paddocks.
• To identify hotspots of excessive nutrient load from dung deposition.
• To evaluate the influence of farm and weather factors on dung distribution.

Main Methods:

• Monitoring seven cattle with smart GPS collars on a Spanish dehesa farm.
• Weekly dung deposition recording in 90 sampling plots.
• Regression analysis of animal presence (GPS data) against dung distribution, considering terrain, water proximity, and canopy cover.

Main Results:

• Cattle preferred flat terrain and areas near water.
• Accumulated animal presence explained 51.9–55.4% of dung distribution variance.
• GPS-inclusive models achieved up to 82.8% determination coefficients, identifying dung hotspots.

Conclusions:

• GPS collar data effectively characterizes dung distribution and identifies nutrient hotspots in dehesas.
• Environmental factors significantly influence dung deposition dynamics.
• This approach supports developing decision tools for sustainable grazing management.