Lying Behaviour in Dairy Goats: Effects of a New Automated Feeding System Assessed by Accelerometer Technology

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate lying behaviour in dairy goats before and after installation of an optimized automatic concentrated feeding system (AFS). A mixed-horned herd of Bunte Deutsche Edelziege was used. As many agonistic interactions between goats happen at the feeding place, a new automated feeding system was installed to better fulfil the needs of horned goats. Lying behaviour is an indicator to ascertain animal welfare of ruminants. In order to measure lying behaviour accelerometer technology was used and verified by video analyses. The results show an agreement of 99.62–99.93% per lying time by comparing accelerometers to video data. Over all goats, a mean ± SD lying time (LT) of 11.78 ± 1.47 h/d, a mean ± SD lying bout duration (LBD) of 0.51 ± 0.10 h/bout and a mean ± SD frequency of lying bouts (FLB) of 24.35 ± 5.57 were found. Lying behaviour follows a seasonal progression with significant lowest LBD and highest FLB in summer. With the old AFS significant differences in LBD and FLB were detected between horned and hornless goats, but with the new AFS results were adjusted. Findings suggest that changes in feeding management do not affect the general seasonal progression of lying behaviour but can affect the behavioural differences between horned and hornless dairy goats.

Development of a Parturition Detection System for Korean Native Black Goats

“…Most goats often lie down and get up between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and lie down and sleep for a long time between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. [26]. Therefore, if there is a significant amount of time spent lying during hours usually associated with low levels of lying behavior when measured using either our method or the method of Maurmann et al [20], we can conclude that certain events, such as illness and parturition, may be occurring. We can also conclude that lying behavior is a marker of rest, thus providing a more accurate indication of welfare.…”

“…In this study, when DT trained a dataset that combined datasets of labor pain and non-labor behaviors, including lying (lateral recumbency) behavior unrelated to labor pain, which were created with X-and Z-axis acceleration values, a classification accuracy of 97% was achieved. Maurmann et al [20] measured lying behavior in goats not exhibiting labor behavior with a triaxial accelerometer attached to their hind legs and achieved 99.62-99.93% accuracy with video data. These results suggest that triaxial accelerometers attached to the hind limbs of goats can accurately measure lying (lateral recumbency) behavior and distinguish between normal lying behavior (non-labor behavior) and labor behavior.…”

“…A triaxial accelerometer was used to analyze various behaviors of the KNBGs kept in the barn. Acceleration sensors were attached to the hind legs of the goats based on previous studies that measured the lying behavior of goats [19,20].…”

Goat Kidding Dataset

“…Accelerometer sensors (neck, leg, and ear tags) have been developed for early detection of diseases or lameness in cattle and thus pain and stress [4,5], to study feed intake and feeding behavior (e.g., rumination time) in cows [2], in sheep [6][7][8][9], and in goats [10][11][12]. Moreover, in dairy cattle accelerometer sensors are used for calving and estrus detection [13].…”