Monitoring cows: 3D disease-detection system developed by Wageningen student

14 Nov 2019 --- Identifying cow disease as early as possible is the key to ensuring the food safety of bovine products. To facilitate this, Ph.D. student Xiangyu Song at Wageningen University and Research (WUR), the Netherlands, has developed an automated 3D vision system for monitoring dairy cows. This non-invasive, animal-friendly 3D technology can help farmers manage their cows’ daily health and their feeding to reach a high-quality production. WUR tips the technology as having “great potential to be widely used on commercial farms.”

“We used machine vision to provide more consistent and objective features that can show changes in weight and body condition of dairy cows,” Dr. Rik van der Tol, Song’s Ph.D. Thesis Supervisor and Senior Researcher at WUR tells FoodIngredientsFirst. 

The system uses 3D cameras to monitor cows for bodily changes and rumen movements.He adds that the conceptual system could be stand-alone, but preferably it is incorporated into a feeding station or (automatic) milking device. This way, any time the animal visits the device, it will be monitored. 

The system uses 3D cameras to monitor cows for bodily changes and rumen movements. It automatically records movements of the reticulum, body size and condition. These physical characteristics equip dairy farmers with the essential information they need to monitor the daily health and nutritional management of their herds. 

“The system worked successfully in the experiments. The 3D system was tested on a commercial dairy farm, monitoring individual cows for more than two months. We discovered that the condition of the animals responded quickly to the change from silage to fresh grass. The 3D system successfully recorded the changes in rumen movements,” says Song. 

“It is remotely sensing, no handling or touching required. Hence, the technology can be considered as animal and labor friendly,” van der Tol explains. Therefore, this non-invasive process is suitable for widespread use on the commercial dairy farms of the future.

Precision Livestock Farming
The new 3D system is a form of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), the use of advanced technologies to optimize the contribution of each animal. Approaching each animal individually, farmers can achieve better results in livestock farming. 

The 3D monitoring system doesn't require the animals to be touched, making for animal-friendly techonology in the dairy sector.This farming method is booming due to the advent of new sensor technologies. The data generated by these technologies helps farmers make informed decisions and make their businesses more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Despite this success, current PLF applications for managing dairy cow health are often slow in identifying diseases. The system developed in this Ph.D. research enables farmers to monitor the biological processes in more detail, allowing them to identify the development of metabolic abnormalities faster and to intervene proactively before a problem with the livestock materializes as a disease.

Food industry’s incorporation of technology
Dairy giant Arla Foods uses 3D imagery systems to identify changes in physical wellbeing, mobility and weight in cows. The use of visual monitoring, data recording and artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in managing cow welfare is expected to remove human subjectivity. Arla also uses an AI tool to predict the milk production of 1.5 million cows, elevating value chain sustainability. This move is expected to use 200 million kilograms of milk more efficiently each year. 

In the meat alternative space, having completed a US$6 million seed round, Israeli start-up Redefine Meat developed a 3D plant-based meat printing system. The start-up will use the investment to finalize the development of its revolutionary alternative meat 3D printer, which will be released next year. The company is targeting a rollout into mass production in 2021. 

Van der Tol notes that predicting the 3D monitoring technology’s exact development for commercial use is still unclear. Nevertheless, he is convinced it will become commercially available and be implemented in the more advanced housing systems. “When it does, the animal will be better off. Given that the technology is automated, the combination makes for happier cows and happier farmers,” he concludes. 

By Anni Schleicher