Smart Brush for Cattle

Cattle in commercial farming systems are highly motivated to use brushes to perform grooming and improve coat cleanliness. A change in brushing behavior may also serve as an early indicator of health and welfare problems. Farmers often provide rotating motorized brushes for cows but the currently available devices do not collect any data on which animal is using them and for how long, limiting the use of brushing behavior to inform management decisions. This project aims to develop and validate a smart brush that gives information on individual- and group-level brush use and can be used on commercial farms to integrate brushing behavior with other on-farm data to improve animal welfare.

Faculty Supervisor:

Daniel Weary;Marina von Keyserlingk

Student:

Borbala Foris

Partner:

Artex

Discipline:

Food science

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of British Columbia