Hi Bert,

I don't have personnal experience with sheep monitoring, but I've come across these publications, which might be of help:

Umstätter, C, Waterhouse, A, Holland, J P. 2008. An automated sensor-based method of simple behavioural classification of sheep in extensive systems. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 64: 19-26

Hulbert, I.A.R., Wyllie, J.T.B., Waterhouse, A., French, J., McNulty, D., 1998. A note on the circadian rhythm and feeding behaviour of sheep fitted with a lightweight GPS collar. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 60, 359–364.

Chambers, A.R.M., Hodgson, J., Milne, J.A., 1981. The development and use of equipment for the automatic recording of ingestive behaviour in sheep and cattle. Grass Forage Sci. 36, 97–105.

Hi Bert, I worked a long time ago with a simple system of halter with pressure transducer that could be wire connected if the animal is blocked in a small barn but could be now wireless connected for sure. Rumination and ingestion can be measured by the same device because the profile of movement are different. More invasive, you can also put a wire electrode directly on the nose to record electomyographic activity. It runs fantastic but only in acute and experimental approach  not for measurement in pasture.  For water it is more simple  because you don't need to use an animal equipment. Animals have to use a drinking trough and you can take a video tape of it with a time code and, in parallel, measure the quantity drunck during this period by the way of a time related water meter. With such a device you can follow a lot of animals thus the relative price is limited.

best regards

I suggest GPS technology and / or the RFID.

GPS technology if the pasture is outdoors in very wide spaces, while the RFID technology could be used in functional areas (rest, water intake, feeding etc.).

if you are interested you may read these 3 articles:

M. BARBARI; L. CONTI; B.K. KOOSTRA; G. MASI; F. SORBETTI GUERRI; S.R. WORKMAN (2006). The use of global positioning and geographical information systems in the management of extensive cattle grazing. BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING, vol. 95, pp. 271-280, ISSN:1537-5110 DOI

Proceeding M. BARBARI; L. CONTI; S. SIMONINI (2008). Spatial identification of animals in different breeding systems to monitor behavior. In: CIGR, Iguassu Falls, Brazil, 31 agosto - 4 settembre, pp. 937-942, ISBN:9781892769688

M. BARBARI; L. CONTI; S. SIMONINI; F. SORBETTI GUERRI (2008). Feeding behaviour of pregnant sows monitored by means of RFID active tags. In: Conference CIGR V and AIIA, Ragusa, 15-17 settembre, pp. 1-6, ISBN:9788890315114

Best regards.

Dear all,

Thank you for the information and tips. I'm looking for a method for monitoring sheep in a very large area (nature reserve, a few km²). So, filming the animals is not an option. I am not directly interested in the location of the animal, but in the eating behavior (feed intake, drinking, rumination).

To Pierre Guy

Do you have more information about the system? Maybe a paper?

Bert

Hi Bert,

Your question is not my field or expertise. but I'm very interest in ethology. Since you said filming is not an option, it seems that  you need a closer look to each sheep. So I was wondering, is it eligible to use volunteer/enumerator to observe eating behavior in each sheep? I know its a bit hard, and (maybe) the presence of human (at close range) will lead to another changing behavior.

Thanks for the topic Bert. I follow your question in case others researcher provide better answer.

Hi Mohammad,

Thank you for the suggestion. Over the years, we have experience with the observation of cattle and horses in pasture. The observer should remain far away from the animals to exclude any effect of his presence on the behavior of the animals. Moreover, automatic monitoring is interesting for 24/24h and 7/7d observing during a long period. For these reasons, I would opt for sensor technology.

To my knowledge there is more info about cattle, but I do not know much about sheep.

Hi! This paper may be of use in addition to what has been suggested.