Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Automatic rumination measuring can be applied as a health indicator in dairy farming but is also highly desirable for research purposes. This study aimed to validate the technical functionality of the product RuminActTM, which employ acoustics to monitor rumination duration. The time budget of high yielding cows was studied and possible differences in rumination time between 13 rations were interpreted. Further the study examined what affects daily rumination and rumination efficiency.

The validation was performed with direct observations that were compared to the automatically recorded rumination durations. 9 cows in total were studied, in groups of three, during approximately 4,5 h for each group. The time budget study was also conducted with direct observations and covered a total of 24 h and 9 cows. Automatically
registered data was used to investigate which parameters affects daily rumination time and rumination efficiency.

RuminActTM appears to be a useful tool that makes rumination time available as an easy obtained parameter for research purposes as well as health indicator for dairy farming. The present study showed that the equipment only underestimates rumination time with 1,86 % on average, although the standard deviation totalled 6,57 %. Observations of the time budget showed that the cows in this study probably are not suffering from any time
constraint since they seem able to perform their behavioural needs in sufficient amounts and no stereotypical behaviours were observed. Significant differences in rumination duration were found between rations although the causes of these variations were difficult to determine, probably due to problems with feed intake registrations. Prolonged daily rumination was positively correlated with higher milk yield and long daily rumination was also positively correlated with extended the inter-cycle periods.