Original papersUse of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to record grazing beef cattle water point use
Introduction
In northern Australia artificial water points (e.g. dams or bores) often provide the only source of drinking water to grazing beef cattle (Freer et al., 2007). Cattle have a high rate of water turnover and regular access to drinking water is essential (Yeates and Schmidt, 1974, Lardner et al., 2013). A minimum of one water point per 30 km2, with a maximum spacing of 6 km between water points, is currently recommended (James et al., 1999, Thrash and Derry, 1999, Meat & Livestock Australia, 2013, Hunt et al., 2014). The current recommendation considers cattle grazing distance from water points, grazing impact around water points and evenness of grazing. It does not consider water point use by cattle (e.g. regularity of visits) or water availability (e.g. distances between water points) effects on cattle production, reproduction and survival.
Most graziers have some practical knowledge of how cattle use water points in their own operations (Morrish, 1984). However, knowing how many water points to install and how far apart they should be to meet cattle water needs is difficult to determine. Few studies have attempted to understand grazing beef cattle watering behaviour. Thus, basic facts about how much water cattle consume and how often cattle drink under varying conditions of climate, pasture and water availability are not well understood by graziers or scientists (Williams et al., 2017). In northern Australia only three studies have documented grazing beef cattle watering behaviour. Schmidt (1969) undertook a detailed study of walking, watering and grazing behaviour of a Shorthorn breeding herd on the Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory, during the 1966 and 1967 dry seasons. A team of CSIRO scientists observed the watering behaviour of British breed cattle on three stations located around Alice Springs, Northern Territory from late 1969 to early 1973 (Low et al., 1978, Low et al., 1981). Morrish (1984) recorded long term observations of mixed Braford cattle on a property located near Windorah, Queensland. Only a small number of studies from other parts of the world contribute more information on grazing beef cattle watering behaviour (Rollinson et al., 1955, Wilson, 1961, Lampkin and Quarterman, 1962, Rouda et al., 1994, Coimbra et al., 2010, Lardner et al., 2013).
In a recent review, Williams et al. (2017) showed that cattle drinking frequency influences the quantity of water cattle consume and can affect other performance attributes. The review reported that dairy cows with ad libitum access to water drank 12–13% more than cows with restricted access to water (once or twice daily) and had higher milk yields and milk fat. Beef cattle with access to water once daily drank 15–25% more than cattle with access to water once every second or third day and had higher feed intakes. The review also highlights that water intake and grazing beef cattle performance has not been studied in response to voluntary drinking regimes. Scientific examination of beef cattle watering behaviour under normal grazing conditions, which involves complex interactions between animals, management and their environment, is essential to inform water point distribution recommendations for graziers and maximise cattle productivity.
Remote weighing technology, which is linked to automatic Radio Frequency IDentification (ig) recording, could be exploited to study grazing cattle water point use. Remote weighing of grazing cattle was first introduced in the 1960s to negate disadvantages of conventional weighing practices such as stress and costs associated with mustering and drafting (Martin et al., 1967). The technology is strategically installed at the entrance of an enclosed water point to entice cattle to walk through the system (Martin et al., 1967). Each time an animal accesses water its RFID equipped ear tag is scanned as it walks past an RFID reader and the date and time is recorded. The animal’s weight is also measured as it walks over an electronic weighing platform (Charmley et al., 2006, Brown et al., 2014). Remote weighing technology has primarily been used to monitor beef cattle live weight and weight gain (Anderson et al., 1980, González et al., 2014b, Hegarty, 2015, Menzies et al., 2017). However, the RFID recording component can also be used to autonomously collect behavioural data as an alternative to traditional time-consuming and expensive observation methods. In a recent study, Menzies et al. (2018) successfully used RFID data from remote weighing technology to determine calf maternal parentage. The number of times a cow and her calf walked through remote weighing technology within a predefined time period correctly identified over 90% of maternal cow-calf pairs. Because remote weighing technology is installed at water points, the RFID recording component essentially registers the date and time of cattle visits to water points and could be used to study water point use by grazing cattle.
The aim of the study was to assess whether RFID reader data from remote weighing technology could be used to examine cattle water point use. The hypothesis was that the technology would be able to detect behavioural differences according to climate and water availability and thus, be a practical tool to study cattle water point use.
Section snippets
Experimental design
The study was conducted as a retrospective analysis of RFID data from three separate experiments that had installed remote weighing technology to monitor cattle live weight. The experiments were conducted between 2011 and 2016 at three cattle stations in northern Australia (Fig. 1). Each station was located in a different grazing region and represented varying climates and water availability conditions. The first experiment was conducted at the Brunchilly outstation of Helen Springs Station,
Results
A summary of the RFID reader data is shown in Table 2. The final dataset for Brunchilly No. 19 bore comprised of 131 days and 18,239 records. Equipment failure occurred during four days (3% of the study period), between 3 and 6 January 2012, due to a hardware fault. Two-thirds of the dataset (38, 661 records) had an erroneous RFID (e.g. excluded cattle). Less than 5% of the dataset was within 30 min of a previous record (2573 records). The data from Stud bore comprised of 2152 records.
Discussion
Beef industry interest in using remote weighing technology to monitor cattle live weight and weight gain is growing. With this growing interest there is an associated opportunity to automatically record cattle behaviour at water points using the technology’s RFID recording component. This study demonstrates the use of RFID reader data to examine cattle water point use. The study was conducted as a retrospective analysis of RFID reader data collated from three previous experiments. The
Conflict of interest
None.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported under the Commonwealth Government’s Research Training Program, Australia/Research Training Scheme and a Supporting Women in Agriculture scholarship. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Australian Government. The experiment from which the data were obtained for “Brunchilly” was funded by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), Australia and the Australian Government. We thank them and the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry and
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