Detecting cow behaviours associated with parturition using computer vision

McDonagh, John (2023) Detecting cow behaviours associated with parturition using computer vision. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Monitoring of dairy cows and their calf during parturition is essential in determining if there are any associated problems for mother and offspring. This is a critical period in the productive life of the mother and offspring. A difficult and assisted calving can impact on the subsequent milk production, health and fertility of a cow, and its potential survival. Furthermore, an alert to the need for any assistance would enhance animal and stockperson wellbeing. Manual monitoring of animal behaviour from images has been used for decades, but is very labour intensive. Recent technological advances in the field of Computer Vision based on the technique of Deep Learning have emerged, which now makes automated monitoring of surveillance video feeds feasible. The benefits of using image analysis compared to other monitoring systems is that image analysis relies upon neither transponder attachments, nor invasive tools and may provide more information at a relatively low cost. Image analysis can also detect and track the calf, which is not possible using other monitoring methods. Using cameras to monitor animals is commonly used, however, automated detection of behaviours is new especially for livestock.

Using the latest state-of-the-art techniques in Computer Vision, and in particular the ground-breaking technique of Deep Learning, this thesis develops a vision-based model to detect the progress of parturition in dairy cows. A large-scale dataset of cow behaviour annotations was created, which included over 46 individual cow calvings and is approximately 690 hours of video footage with over 2.5k of video clips, each between 3-10 seconds. The model was trained on seven different behaviours, which included standing, walking, shuffle, lying, eating, drinking, and contractions while lying. The developed network correctly classified the seven behaviours with an accuracy of between 80 to 95%. The accuracy in predicting contractions while lying down was 83%, which in itself can be an early warning calving alert, as all cows start contractions one to two hours before giving birth. The performance of the model developed was also comparable to methods for human action classification using the Kinetics dataset.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Tzimiropoulos, Yorgos
Bell, Matt
Pridmore, Tony
Down, Pete
Keywords: Calving; Behaviour monitoring; Deep Learning; Automated detection of behaviours
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA 75 Electronic computers. Computer science
S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Science > School of Computer Science
Item ID: 76462
Depositing User: McDonagh, John
Date Deposited: 12 Dec 2023 04:40
Last Modified: 12 Dec 2023 04:40
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/76462

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