Change in Rumination behavior as an indicator for ...

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Introduction: - electronic monitoring of rumination time: use in heat detection and health care management. - calving time: period of high risk for calf and dam.
WG2 Workshop: „Activity measurement in ruminant research and beyond“ Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, June 20th and 21st 2016

K. Hallia, C. Kochb und S. Hoya aJustus-Liebig-University Giessen; bEducation and Research Centre for Animal Husbandry Hofgut Neumühle, Münchweiler a. d. Alsenz Introduction: - electronic monitoring of rumination time: use in heat detection and health care management - calving time: period of high risk for calf and dam need for: time investigated in birth control, professional and competent birth assistance challenge: optimized calving management in growing herd sizes, lower calf losses, care of dam

Scientific question: Does electronic monitoring of rumination time before and around calving have potential to be used as a tool for early calving detection?

Material and Methods: - electronic monitoring of rumination time (2-h values) by use of HeatimeTM HR (SCR Engineers Ltd., Netanya, Israel) - 24-hour video recording of calving pens for exact detection of calving time - observation of 58 Holstein-Friesian cows (16 primiparous and 42 multiparous) from March to November 2014 - statistical analysis of data from 8 days before till 8 days after calving by use of Excel 2010 and SPSS 22.0 Results:

Cow 926: Decline of rumination time starting 4 hours before calving.

Mean significant decline of rumination time starting 8 hours before calving.

Conclusions: - Rumination behaviour before calving was found to be very different between cows. - 84% of calving events showed a decline in rumination time several hours before calving. - A mean significant decline in rumination time was found, starting 8 hours before calving. Electronic monitoring of rumination time can be used for early calving detection as a supporting tool in calving management.

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