RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Hidden Markov Model to Estimate the Time Dairy Cows Spend in Feeder Based on Indoor Positioning Data
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 250092
DO 10.1101/250092
A1 Matti Pastell
A1 Frondelius Lilli
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/06/29/250092.abstract
AB The feeding time of dairy cows is linked with the health status of the animal and can be used to estimate daily feed intake together with other measurements. The aim of this study was to develop a model to measure the time a dairy cow spends at a feed bunk using an Ultra wide-band indoor positioning system.We measured the feeding behavior of 50 dairy cows during 7 days using Ubisense indoor positioning system and Insentec roughage feeders. We calculated the feeding (presence at the feeder) probability of the cow using logistic regression model with the distance to feed barrier as input and used the Viterbi algorithm to calculate the most likely state (feeding or not feeding) given state transition probabilities. The model was able to predict whether the cow was at the feeding trough or not with the accuracy of 97.6%, sensitivity 95.3% and specificity 97.9%. The model was also able to estimate the mean bout duration and the number of feeding bouts.