Abstract
The dairy industry has an increasing availability of commercially available equipment that is readily available for the automation of management tasks, including milking and feeding, as well as the monitoring of dairy cow behavior. Such automation not only has the ability to improve production and time efficiency on farm, but also increases our ability to detect health disorders, both in occurrence and in advance of clinical symptoms. This, in turn, has the potential to allow producers to identify and implement prevention and treatment protocols at earlier time points. Thus, this presentation will focus on how we can utilize automation in precision farming to keep cows healthy, productive, and efficient. Particular focus will be on measures of behavior that may be collected automatically, including feeding, rumination, lying/standing, and milking behavior, and the association these behavior have with various health issues, including metabolic and infectious transition disease, lameness, and mastitis. Limitations and challenges associated with such monitoring will also be discussed. It is anticipated that through precision monitoring of such behaviors, particularly with the aid of automation, those cows at risk or experiencing illness can be identified. This, in turn, will allow producers to identify and implement prevention and treatment protocols at earlier time points.
Keywords: automation, behavior, dairy cattle