scholarly journals Random Forest Modelling of Milk Yield of Dairy Cows under Heat Stress Conditions

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1305
Author(s):  
Marco Bovo ◽  
Miki Agrusti ◽  
Stefano Benni ◽  
Daniele Torreggiani ◽  
Patrizia Tassinari

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) relies on several technological approaches to acquire, in the most efficient way, precise and real-time data concerning production and welfare of individual animals. In this regard, in the dairy sector, PLF devices are being increasingly adopted, automatic milking systems (AMSs) are becoming increasingly widespread, and monitoring systems for animals and environmental conditions are becoming common tools in herd management. As a consequence, a great amount of daily recorded data concerning individual animals are available for the farmers and they could be used effectively for the calibration of numerical models to be used for the prediction of future animal production trends. On the other hand, the machine learning approaches in PLF are nowadays considered an extremely promising solution in the research field of livestock farms and the application of these techniques in the dairy cattle farming would increase sustainability and efficiency of the sector. The study aims to define, train, and test a model developed through machine learning techniques, adopting a Random Forest algorithm, having the main goal to assess the trend in daily milk yield of a single cow in relation to environmental conditions. The model has been calibrated and tested on the data collected on 91 lactating cows of a dairy farm, located in northern Italy, and equipped with an AMS and thermo-hygrometric sensors during the years 2016–2017. In the statistical model, having seven predictor features, the daily milk yield is evaluated as a function of the position of the day in the lactation curve and the indoor barn conditions expressed in terms of daily average of the temperature-humidity index (THI) in the same day and its value in each of the five previous days. In this way, extreme hot conditions inducing heat stress effects can be considered in the yield predictions by the model. The average relative prediction error of the milk yield of each cow is about 18% of daily production, and only 2% of the total milk production.

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vesna Gantner ◽  
Krešimir Kuterovac ◽  
Klemen Potočnik

Abstract The objectives were to evaluate the effect of heat stress on daily milk traits (yield, fat and protein content, F/P ratio) as well as to determine the differences in metabolic disorders (acidosis, ketosis) prevalence risk regarding the heat stress conditions. For statistical analysis 1,187,781 test-day records of milk, fat, and protein from 89,030 Holsteins reared on 6,388 farms provided by the Croatian Agricultural Agency, were used. Based on the results it could be concluded that heat stress condition causes decline of daily milk yield and components as well as increase of acidosis risk regardless of the lactation stage and increase of ketosis risk during mid-lactation. The research results point out that the test-day records and environmental measurements collected in regular milk recording could be used as a tool for dairy herd monitoring enabling the early detection of unfavourable environmental conditions and the subclinical disorders. Since environmental conditions significantly affect daily milk yield and components, and consequently F/P ratio, further research with the purpose of detailed formulation of metabolic disease risk in relation to the environmental conditions is needed.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Musa Bah ◽  
Muhammad Afzal Rashid ◽  
Khalid Javed ◽  
Talat Naseer Pasha ◽  
Muhammad Qamer Shahid

Water buffaloes wallow in water to combat heat stress during summer. With the decreasing reservoirs for wallowing, the farmers use sprinklers to cool the buffaloes in Pakistan. These sprinklers use a large quantity of groundwater, which is becoming scarce. The objective of the current study was to determine the effect of different sprinkler flow rates on the physiological, behavioral, and production responses of Nili Ravi buffaloes during summer. Eighteen buffaloes were randomly subjected to three sprinkler flow rate treatments in a double replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design. The flow rates were 0.8, 1.25, and 2.0 L/min. During the study, the average afternoon temperature humidity index was 84.6. The 1.25 and 2.0 L/min groups had significantly lower rectal temperature and respiratory rates than the 0.8 L/min group. Water intake was significantly higher in the 0.8 L/min group. Daily milk yield was higher in the 1.25 and 2.0 L/min groups than in the 0.8 L/min group. These results suggested that the sprinkler flow rates > 0.8 L/min effectively cooled the buffaloes. The sprinkler flow rate of 1.25 L/min appeared to be more efficient, as it used 37.5% less water compared to the 2.0 L/min.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramandeep Kaur Dhaliwal ◽  
Puneet Malhotra ◽  
Neeraj Kashyap ◽  
Shakti Kant Dash ◽  
Lakhvir Kaur Dhaliwal ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
L. Gautam H.A. Waiz ◽  
R. K. Nagda

Data on 3244 Sirohi kidding during 2004 to 2016 in farmer’s flocks under All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Goat Improvement (AICRP) project, Vallabhnagar, Udaipur were utilized to estimate the average daily milk (ADM) at different lactation months and subjected to least square analysis to study the effect of various non-genetic factors like cluster, periods of kidding, season of kidding, parity, type of birth and regression of dam’s weight. The overall least-squares means for ADM1, ADM2, ADM3, ADM4, ADM5 and overall ADM were 564.07±18.34, 671.92±15.17, 633.41±10.75, 508.93±8.01, 329.72±7.93 and 540.79±10.78 ml, respectively. Cluster and period wise variation were highly significant on all stages of average daily milk yields. The parity had statistically highly significant effect on average daily milk yields, in which seemed that milk yields increase as parity increase, thereafter declined slowly. The effect of type of kidding was non-significant on all stages of average daily milk yield under this study. The regression of dam’s weight at kidding was positive and highly significant (P£ 0.01) on all average daily milk yield. The heritability estimates for these traits ranged from 0.03 ± 0.01 (ADM4) to 0.19 ± 0.02 0.06 ± 002 (ADM1). The high estimates of genetic correlations of average milk yield of different periods with overall average daily milk yield. The phenotypic correlations were positive and low between ADM1 and ADM4­, ADM5 and medium between ADM1 and ADM4, ADM5. In order to augment goat milk production, goat keepers need to be focused on nutritional and others environmental conditions as it affect their flock.


2011 ◽  
Vol 94 (9) ◽  
pp. 4502-4513 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. André ◽  
B. Engel ◽  
P.B.M. Berentsen ◽  
Th.V. Vellinga ◽  
A.G.J.M. Oude Lansink

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 981-988
Author(s):  
Gan Li ◽  
Jian Chen ◽  
Dandan Peng ◽  
Xianhong Gu

Author(s):  
Atakan Koc

The purpose of this study is to investigate the environmental factors on the milking time milk yield of Red Holstein cows. For this aim, 172,826 morning milk yield (MMY) and 172,771 evening milk yield (EMY) data collected between 2001 and 2010 from a dairy farm in Aydin Province, Turkey were used. The THI is over 72 from June to August in the region. The effects of calving month, calving year, parity, lactation month and milking month on MMY and EMY were found to be statistically significant. For every month, year and parity, the MMY means were higher than those of the EMY. The peak daily milk yield was determined on the 46th day of lactation (31.7±0.013 kg). For parity, the highest milk yield means were detected for the third parity: 13.69±0.023 kg for MMY and 11.70±0.021 kg for EMY. In conclusion, taking precautions to protect the cows from heat stress especially for the cows calved in summer and keeping the milking interval equal for whole year would help increasing the milk yield.


Author(s):  
Vesna Gantner ◽  
Tina Bobić ◽  
Klemen Potočnik ◽  
Maja Gregić ◽  
Denis Kučević

In order to determine the persistence of heat stress effect in dairy cows regarding the breed, parity and susceptibility to heat stress, over 1.9 million of test-day records from Holstein and Simmental cows reared in Croatia were used. The persistence of heat stress effect in the subsequent milk recordings was determined in cows that had significant decrease of daily milk yield at different THI threshold value (65, 70, 75, 80, and 85). The obtained results indicate that cows heat stressed at lower THI threshold value had higher proportional drop of daily milk yield in subsequent milk recordings. Also, primiparous and Simmentals experienced higher proportional drop when compared to multiparous and Holsteins. The negative effect of heat stress on daily milk contents that existed in all cows was more pronounced in the 2nd subsequent milk recording. The determined increase of somatic cell count in more heat stress sensitive Holsteins (THI in 65, 70, 75) indicates that Holstein cows, in terms of heat stress, also become more susceptible to mastitis. Finally, the lower was the THI threshold value, the stronger and more persistent was the heat stress effect. Considering the quite probable increase of the frequency of heat stress days, it is necessary to develop an adequate strategy for dairy farming. Aiming the accurate answer to the problem of heat stress in this region, it is necessary to conduct further research on genetic evaluation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Jožef ◽  
Maja Gregić ◽  
Tina Bobić ◽  
Božo Važić ◽  
Vesna Gantner

The goal of this paper was to determine the effect of daily production level of primiparous Holstein cows kept on dairy cattle farms in Eastern Croatia on response to heat stress conditions (THI threshold). With that purpose, individual test-day records with data on ambient temperature and relative humidity in the barns were analysed. Data were collected in regular milk recording from 2006-2012. The THI threshold values for daily milk yield were determined by least square analyses of variance for each given THI value (from 68 to 72) using the PROC MIXED (SAS). Low producing cows experienced significant drop at THI=68, while in high producing primiparous Holsteins first significant drop in daily milk yield was observed when THI=69. Also, the amount of daily production drop depended on cow’s production level (0.155-0.256 kg/day in high producing; 0.319-0.460 kg/day in low producing). It could be concluded that the response of primiparous Holstein cows kept in Eastern Croatia to heat stress conditions depends on daily production level.


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