Video tech keeps eye on cattle lameness
USING video technology to detect early stage lameness has been described as one of the “most promising” projects ever undertaken by Farming Connect.
In trials on Anglesey, the system slashed the number of dairy cows with severely impaired mobility by 75%.
Erw Fawr, a Farming Connect demonstration site near Holyhead, has been testing a new digital set-up that uses an algorithm to analyse video sequences of cows walking.
A CCTV camera scans cows as they walk beneath it and CattleEye software picks out key markers on each animal to provide a mobility score, building up a profile of how the cow is walking.
Basic security cameras can be linked to the internet to assess the welfare and performance of the herd without additional hardware such as cow collars or pedometers.
As soon as the system notices a change in mobility, this is flagged up.
At Erw Fawr, this has given farmer Ceredig Evans the opportunity to treat before a case becomes chronic among his herd of 300 high-yielding Holsteins.
Cattle lameness expert Prof George Oikonomou, of Liverpool University, has been evaluating how the technology has performed at the farm.
At the start of the trial in April 2021, cows were scored visually by the same person using the AHDB scoring system.
Of these, 25.4% had mobility issues, with 5.9% at score 3, which indicates severely impaired mobility.
Over the past six months, CattleEye data has been analysed by Prof Oikonomou, who then provided Mr Evans with lists of cows to assess and those due for early lactation or pre drying-off routine trims.
Visits by foot trimmers Paul and Jack Nettleton were increased to twice a month to make better use of the information provided by CattleEye.
Six months later, only 1% of the herd was at score 3.
Across the herd, mobility issues (cows with a mobility score of 2 or 3) had reduced to 13.5%.
Mr Evans is delighted with how the system had performed, picking up foot lesions that he would not otherwise have spotted.
As an added bonus, it has also removed the physical job of scoring.
He said lameness was an issue that the dairy industry needed to address.
“I always say that if cows have healthy
feet and a healthy udder, everything else comes together,” he said.
“From a farmer and a milk contract point of view, it is important, but from an economic one, it makes sense to have healthier cows.
“Every job needs time and effort, and to have technology that does the job for you, means it gets done.’’
One of the biggest issues with preventing lameness is early detection, said Prof Oikonomou.
Cattle Eye has shown it is possible to pick up cases before they become chronic,
he said.
“We know from research with farmers that often their perception of a lame cow is one that stays behind, that can’t keep up with the rest of the herd.
“But a lot of cows will have early stages of lameness that will not be seen unless you are mobility-scoring them.
“CattleEye is possibly one of the ways to address that issue.’’
Rhys Davies, Farming Connect’s dairy technical officer in North Wales, said: “This is one of the most promising projects we have worked on.”