| AUTOMATION IN HEALTH MONITORING IN MODERN DAIRY PRODUCTION SYSTEM |
Yajuvendra Singh, Pankaj kumar Jain, Vijay Kumar Sharma*,Sumit Mahajan
National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal- 132001
INTRODUCTION
Traditional methods of monitoring health changes in animals are based entirely on the human senses. The health and fertility of the dairy cow has until recent years been monitored entirely by visual observation. However, as the availability of skilled labour is reduced automatic systems are needed, as because in modern dairy production systems humans are rarely present, this is particularly the case with the introduction of robotic milking.
In these systems all the functions of milking are automated and cows visit at times of their own choosing. Systems of automatic health monitoring are therefore a priority for research to ensure that the health and reproductive status of the animals can be assessed for management purposes. These systems must be automatic, work in field conditions without technical support and cost a few rupees per analysis. Our main emphasis in dairy cows should be in predicting ovulation, detecting metabolic imbalance and detecting pre-clinical mastitis & inflammatory responses.
In recent years various workers are trying to develop an integrated system for biological research with sensor systems for urea, ketones, lipids, and enzymes in milk. This will allow the development of diagnostic models based on analyzing numerical sensor derived data rather than human visual observations for signs of ill health in dairy cows. The range of conditions feasible for noninvasive monitoring of the lactating dairy cow are described and the sensors that are likely to be effective and the limited experimental data for each system are described.
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