cattle

Bijeenkomst: EGF2015
Auteur: Virkajärvi P., Rinne M., Mononen J., Niskanen O., Järvenranta K. and Sairanen A.
ISBN: 978-9090-289-61-8
Jaar van uitgifte: 2015
Producttype: Paper
In Finland milk and beef contribute 50% of the agricultural gross return. The growing season is short, 125-180 days, and therefore the indoor period plays a major role relative to the grazing season. This leads to high capital costs for production (winter-proof housing systems, forage and slurry storage, harvesting machinery). Thus, production demand per animal is high and Finnish cows produce ca. 8,000 kg energy corrected milk per cow per year. Milk production is mostly located in central and northern parts of Finland where climate and geology restrict other agricultural land use options. Finnish dairy farms and herds have been small, but there has been a continuous increase in herd size, currently averaging 33 cows per herd. Grass silage contributes 55-60% of the dietary dry matter. Hard winter conditions limit the choice of forage species; the most important are timothy, meadow fescue and red clover. Potential annual grass yield is 9-12 Mg ha‑1, typically harvested 2 or 3 times per season. Silage is mostly prewilted and additives are commonly used. Concentrates typically include barley, oats and rapeseed meal. Grassland covers 32% of the agricultural land and therefore the forage production practices have strong environmental impacts.

Bijeenkomst: EGF2015
Auteur: Delagarde R. and Lemonnier J.P.
ISBN: 978-9090-289-61-8
Jaar van uitgifte: 2015
Producttype: Paper
Several commercially available devices automatically record feeding behaviour of dairy cows on farm, but independent validation studies are often not available. The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of the FeedPhone® device, developed in France by Medria, to record eating and rumination activities of dairy cows. The FeedPhone is based on a tri-axial accelerometer placed on a collar, data being radio-transferred and processed automatically. The main activity (eating, rumination, or rest) is recorded every 5 min. Validation was performed on 7 lactating dairy cows fed on maize silage and concentrates for a total of 89 full day records. The actual times were determined by a reference method, by recording continuously the weight of the trough and the jaw movements at the minute scale. At the day level, the mean prediction error was 11.5% for eating time and 11.1% for rumination times, with low mean and slope biases (error mainly random). Eating and rumination activities are clearly distinguishable. This precision enables the detection of between-day variations of both eating or rumination times of 20, 10, and 5%, at cow level, small-herd level (4-7 cows) and larger herd level (>20 cows), respectively. This accuracy makes the FeedPhone valuable for studying relative variations of both eating and rumination times of dairy cows fed on total mixed ration.