From Manual Observation to Automated Monitoring: Space Allowance Effects on Play Behaviour in Group-Housed Dairy Calves
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866918316386287616 |
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| author | Yang, Haiyu Lesscher, Heidi Liu, Enhong Hostens, Miel |
| author_facet | Yang, Haiyu Lesscher, Heidi Liu, Enhong Hostens, Miel |
| contents | Play behaviour serves as a positive welfare indicator in dairy calves, yet the influence of space allowance under commercial conditions remains poorly characterized, particularly at intermediate-to-high allowances (6-20 m2 per calf). This study investigated the relationship between space allowance and play behaviour in 60 group-housed dairy calves across 14 commercial farms in the Netherlands (space range: 2.66-17.98 m2 per calf), and developed an automated computer vision pipeline for scalable monitoring. Video observations were analyzed using a detailed ethogram, with play expressed as percentage of observation period (%OP). Statistical analysis employed linear mixed models with farm as a random effect. A computer vision pipeline was trained on manual annotations from 108 hours on 6 farms and validated on held-out test data. The computer vision classifier achieved 97.6% accuracy with 99.4% recall for active play detection. Calves spent on average 1.0% of OP playing reflecting around 10 minutes per 17-hour period. The space-play relationship was non-linear, with highest play levels at 8-10 m2 per calf (1.6% OP) and lowest at 6-8 m2 and 12-14 m2 (<0.6% OP). Space remained significant after controlling for age, health, and group size. In summary, these findings suggest that 8-10 m2 per calf represents a practical target balancing welfare benefits with economic feasibility, and demonstrate that automated monitoring can scale small annotation projects to continuous welfare assessment systems. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_00111 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | From Manual Observation to Automated Monitoring: Space Allowance Effects on Play Behaviour in Group-Housed Dairy Calves Yang, Haiyu Lesscher, Heidi Liu, Enhong Hostens, Miel Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Image and Video Processing Play behaviour serves as a positive welfare indicator in dairy calves, yet the influence of space allowance under commercial conditions remains poorly characterized, particularly at intermediate-to-high allowances (6-20 m2 per calf). This study investigated the relationship between space allowance and play behaviour in 60 group-housed dairy calves across 14 commercial farms in the Netherlands (space range: 2.66-17.98 m2 per calf), and developed an automated computer vision pipeline for scalable monitoring. Video observations were analyzed using a detailed ethogram, with play expressed as percentage of observation period (%OP). Statistical analysis employed linear mixed models with farm as a random effect. A computer vision pipeline was trained on manual annotations from 108 hours on 6 farms and validated on held-out test data. The computer vision classifier achieved 97.6% accuracy with 99.4% recall for active play detection. Calves spent on average 1.0% of OP playing reflecting around 10 minutes per 17-hour period. The space-play relationship was non-linear, with highest play levels at 8-10 m2 per calf (1.6% OP) and lowest at 6-8 m2 and 12-14 m2 (<0.6% OP). Space remained significant after controlling for age, health, and group size. In summary, these findings suggest that 8-10 m2 per calf represents a practical target balancing welfare benefits with economic feasibility, and demonstrate that automated monitoring can scale small annotation projects to continuous welfare assessment systems. |
| title | From Manual Observation to Automated Monitoring: Space Allowance Effects on Play Behaviour in Group-Housed Dairy Calves |
| topic | Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Image and Video Processing |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.00111 |