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Evaluation of remote monitoring units for estimating body weight and supplement intake of grazing cattle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2020

G. Simanungkalit Open the ORCID record for G. Simanungkalit [Opens in a new window] ,
R. S. Hegarty ,
F. C. Cowley Open the ORCID record for F. C. Cowley [Opens in a new window]  and
M. J. McPhee Open the ORCID record for M. J. McPhee [Opens in a new window]
G. Simanungkalit*
Affiliation:
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales2351, Australia
R. S. Hegarty
Affiliation:
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales2351, Australia
F. C. Cowley
Affiliation:
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales2351, Australia
M. J. McPhee
Affiliation:
NSW Department of Primary Industries, Livestock Industries Centre, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales2351, Australia
*
†E-mail: gamasimanungkalit@gmail.com
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Abstract

Automated weighing systems to monitor BW and supplement intake (SI) of individual grazing cattle are being developed to better understand the seasonal nutrition and performance of grazing livestock. This study established (1) the accuracy and repeatability of a commercial walk-over weighing (WoW) system for estimating BW and (2) the accuracy of an automatic supplement weighing (ASW) unit for estimating SI based on measuring time spent at the unit. The WoW and ASW units monitored BW and SI of 112 cattle consisting of 55 cows and 57 calves grazed on a 32.5 ha paddock for 41 days, with an average of 258 BW records collected per day. Static BWs were recorded at each mustering event (n = 7) and were compared to repeated measurements collected by the WoW on the day of each mustering event. Body weight was overestimated by the WoW, with the predicted BW of calves and cows averaging 10 and 21 kg heavier, respectively, than actual, and root MS prediction errors (RMSPE) of 5.1% and 5.5% of the static BW, respectively. For both calves and cows, 38% of the MS prediction errors (MSPE) was mean bias (MB) error and 9% of MSPE was slope bias error. The concordance correlation coefficient (CCC; 0.90 v. 0.80) and modelling efficiency (MEF; 0.78 v. 0.62) of WoW BW for calves were higher than for cows, indicating that the predicted values were deviating from a 1 : 1 relationship and in particular as weight increases. A rolling average across five or more consecutive BW measures improved the accuracy of the WoW BW estimates. Regarding estimates of SI, the aggregated time the herd spent at the ASW unit was strongly associated with total SI (R2 = 0.92; P < 0.001). Further, positive linear relationships (P < 0.001) existed between cumulative weighted time spent at the ASW unit (min) and concentration of fenbendazole (FBZ) used as an intake marker and its derivatives (oxfendazole and oxfendazole sulfone) in the plasma of individual cows, with R2 of 0.54, 0.73 and 0.75, respectively. Although the WoW overestimated static BW, the low bias in the slope indicated that a linear regression model could be developed to adjust the WoW BW to reduce the MB and improve the estimate of WoW BW. The significant positive relationship between time spent at the ASW unit and individual blood FBZ concentration identified the suitability of the ASW unit for estimating SI by grazing cattle.

Keywords

individual grazing cattlesupplementationwalk-over weighingautomatic supplement weighingfenbendazole
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 14 , Issue S2: 9th Workshop on Modelling Nutrient Digestion and Utilization in Farm Animals (MODNUT) , August 2020 , pp. s332 - s340
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2020

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