An Intelligent Grazing Development Strategy for Unmanned Animal Husbandry in China

Abstract

Grazing is the most important and lowest cost means of livestock breeding. Because of the sharp contradiction between the grassland ecosystem and livestock, the grassland ecosystem has tended to degrade in past decades in China; therefore, the ecological balance of the grassland has been seriously damaged. The implementation of grazing prohibition, rotational grazing and the development of a large-scale breeding industry have not only ensured the supply of animal husbandry products, but also promoted the restoration of the grassland ecosystem. For the large-scale breeding industry, the animal welfare of livestock cannot be guaranteed due to the narrow and crowded space, thus, the production of the breeding industry usually has lower competitiveness than grazing. Disorderly grazing leads to grassland ecological crises; however, intelligent grazing can not only ensure animal welfare, but also fully improve the competitiveness of livestock husbandry products. Under the development of urbanization, the workforce engaged in grazing and breeding in pastoral areas is gradually lost. Intelligent grazing breeding methods need to be developed and popularized. This paper focuses on intelligent grazing, reviews grass remote sensing and aerial seeding, wearable monitoring equipment of livestock, UAV monitoring and intelligent grazing robots, and summarizes the development of intelligent grazing elements, exploring the new development direction of automatic grazing management with the grazing robot at this stage.

Use of drone technology in animal health and management

“…Studies such as the M100 UAV platform designed by Andrew et al [34], emphasize the use of UAVs for the development of sustainable digital services and automated monitoring of livestock in various sectors. Furthermore, the use of UAVs in animal grazing processes is highlighted by studies such as the smart grazing ecosystem designed by Cao et al [35] and Mufford et al [36] using UAVs to measure spatial proximity. These applications show that UAVs can be used effectively to direct herds to desired locations and monitor the behavior of individual animals.…”