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Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster

Hind-leg activity in dairy cows during milking is considered an indicator of a stressful situation or discomfort. Automatic detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking could be used to monitor deficiencies at the cow, milking machine, or human level. We assumed that the milking cluster follows...

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Autores principales: Raoult, C.M.C., Margerit, A.A., Fricker, S., Blümel, F.E., Savary, P.E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9623800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36338777
http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jdsc.2020-0020
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author Raoult, C.M.C.
Margerit, A.A.
Fricker, S.
Blümel, F.E.
Savary, P.E.
author_facet Raoult, C.M.C.
Margerit, A.A.
Fricker, S.
Blümel, F.E.
Savary, P.E.
author_sort Raoult, C.M.C.
collection PubMed
description Hind-leg activity in dairy cows during milking is considered an indicator of a stressful situation or discomfort. Automatic detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking could be used to monitor deficiencies at the cow, milking machine, or human level. We assumed that the milking cluster follows cow hind-leg movements during milking. Therefore, the aim of our study was to estimate the ability of a 3-dimensional (3D) accelerometer attached to the claw's hook of the milking cluster to indirectly measure cow hind-leg activity during milking. The behavior of 45 dairy cows during 1 morning and 1 evening milking in a 2 × 3 auto tandem milking parlor was monitored by using direct visual observations and a 3D accelerometer attached directly to the hook of each milking claw. We recorded when hind-leg foot-lifting or stepping (undifferentiated) and kicking behaviors occurred. Detected activities were obtained after applying a standard deviation filter (over a sliding window of 1 s) on the x (left/right lateral) acceleration axis only. We set the detection threshold at 0.13 g (i.e., 1.27 m·s(−2)), based on the visual evaluation of 10 “reference” graphs (from 5 randomly chosen cows). Periods of activity were created for each observed or detected activity (and for consecutive activities that were less than 3 s apart) to take into account the milking cluster's rocking motion resulting from a single movement. Observed and detected periods of activity were considered matching when they occurred simultaneously (with a 2-s delay acceptance in the visual observations). In total, 472 periods of hind-leg activity were observed. The detection of hind-leg activity by using a 3D accelerometer attached to the milking cluster was found to have 69% sensitivity, 99% specificity, 75% positive predictive value, 98% negative predictive value, and an overall accuracy of 97%. On average, cows were observed being active 0.94 times per minute and being detected active 0.86 times per minute. The observed and detected periods of activity were found to be correlated (r = 0.657). Therefore, the use of a 3D accelerometer attached to the milking cluster seems promising for reliably estimating cow hind-leg activity during milking. Nevertheless, further investigations are necessary to clarify whether other factors can cause variations in milking cluster movements, regardless of cow hind-leg activity, and to generalize our method to better identify deficiencies in cow–machine–human interactions.
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spelling pubmed-96238002022-11-04 Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster Raoult, C.M.C. Margerit, A.A. Fricker, S. Blümel, F.E. Savary, P.E. JDS Commun Health, Behavior, and Well-being Hind-leg activity in dairy cows during milking is considered an indicator of a stressful situation or discomfort. Automatic detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking could be used to monitor deficiencies at the cow, milking machine, or human level. We assumed that the milking cluster follows cow hind-leg movements during milking. Therefore, the aim of our study was to estimate the ability of a 3-dimensional (3D) accelerometer attached to the claw's hook of the milking cluster to indirectly measure cow hind-leg activity during milking. The behavior of 45 dairy cows during 1 morning and 1 evening milking in a 2 × 3 auto tandem milking parlor was monitored by using direct visual observations and a 3D accelerometer attached directly to the hook of each milking claw. We recorded when hind-leg foot-lifting or stepping (undifferentiated) and kicking behaviors occurred. Detected activities were obtained after applying a standard deviation filter (over a sliding window of 1 s) on the x (left/right lateral) acceleration axis only. We set the detection threshold at 0.13 g (i.e., 1.27 m·s(−2)), based on the visual evaluation of 10 “reference” graphs (from 5 randomly chosen cows). Periods of activity were created for each observed or detected activity (and for consecutive activities that were less than 3 s apart) to take into account the milking cluster's rocking motion resulting from a single movement. Observed and detected periods of activity were considered matching when they occurred simultaneously (with a 2-s delay acceptance in the visual observations). In total, 472 periods of hind-leg activity were observed. The detection of hind-leg activity by using a 3D accelerometer attached to the milking cluster was found to have 69% sensitivity, 99% specificity, 75% positive predictive value, 98% negative predictive value, and an overall accuracy of 97%. On average, cows were observed being active 0.94 times per minute and being detected active 0.86 times per minute. The observed and detected periods of activity were found to be correlated (r = 0.657). Therefore, the use of a 3D accelerometer attached to the milking cluster seems promising for reliably estimating cow hind-leg activity during milking. Nevertheless, further investigations are necessary to clarify whether other factors can cause variations in milking cluster movements, regardless of cow hind-leg activity, and to generalize our method to better identify deficiencies in cow–machine–human interactions. Elsevier 2021-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9623800/ /pubmed/36338777 http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jdsc.2020-0020 Text en © 2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Health, Behavior, and Well-being
Raoult, C.M.C.
Margerit, A.A.
Fricker, S.
Blümel, F.E.
Savary, P.E.
Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster
title Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster
title_full Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster
title_fullStr Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster
title_full_unstemmed Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster
title_short Detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster
title_sort detection of cow hind-leg activity during milking by using a 3-dimensional accelerometer attached to the milking cluster
topic Health, Behavior, and Well-being
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9623800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36338777
http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jdsc.2020-0020
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