Computer Vision for Cattle Health and Welfare Monitoring: A Comprehensive Review of Methods, Applications, and...

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Technology
• Animal Science
• Computer Vision

Background:

• The cattle industry requires advanced monitoring for health and welfare due to global growth.
• Traditional manual monitoring is labor-intensive and impractical for large-scale farms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To comprehensively review computer vision tools for cattle health and welfare monitoring.
• To address key research questions on technology application, challenges, and future potential.

Main Methods:

• Systematic examination of studies across major databases.
• Analysis focused on six key research questions regarding computer vision in cattle farming.

Main Results:

• Computer vision shows significant progress in detecting body condition, lameness, weight, estrus, feeding/drinking behavior, breathing, and general behaviors.
• Challenges include environmental variability, need for large datasets, and high equipment costs.

Conclusions:

• Computer vision offers practical applications for cattle health and welfare monitoring.
• Future research should focus on disease-specific monitoring to overcome current limitations.