Potentials of Spatio-Temporal Behaviour Data of Cattle in Alpine Pasture Farming

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1 Potentials of Spatio-Temporal Behaviour Data of Cattle in Alpine Pasture Farming Christine Braunreiter em. Dr. Dr. habil. Hermann Auernhammer Dipl.-Ing. agr. Georg Steinberger Dipl.-Ing. agr. Prof. ASABE Annual International Meeting Providence, Rhode Island June 29 July 2, 2008 A08-08 (1)

2 Two examples of summer pasturing in European Alps In Austria there are more than alps, where farmers keep about cattle, sheep and goats The total area accounts ha (a quarter of farmland in Austria). Grassland and forage production accounts in Bavaria (Germany) for nearly 50% ( hectares) of the mountainous farmland - divided into alpine fields - with about cattle, sheep and goats. But: Since about 100 years, more and more alpine fields are no more used for pasturing (willingness of stuff, isolation, economics, ). Areas have to be kept open to preserve the man-made landscape (hiking, tourism, landscape, ). How can we react to depopulation and to have open landscape? A08-08 (2)

3 Animals in pasture farming (in alpine regions) Herbivores (wildlife and farm animals) choose their home ranges appropriate to their evolutionary specification Grazers (cattle, sheep) Browsers (roe deer) Intermediate types (goats, ibex, chamois) The potential for alternating and different pasturing strategies is founded here Furthermore a lot of (environmental) parameters influence land use behaviour of the animals Pasture farming to protect cultural landscape conflict Impact caused by grazing animals A08-08 (3)

4 Grazing behavior Cattle tend to smaller groups Grazing in individual distances but still staying in a group Grazing in the wrong time increases selection Grazing in the right time offers most benefits to animals, pasture and environment A08-08 (4)

5 Objectives Acquiring and processing of precision behavioral and position data of (free) grazing farm animals with adapted technology to generate mappings via Geographical Information System (GIS) to know where animals are? what animals do? Deriving strategies for sustainable pasture management... pasture documentation... operational herd management... preservation of the man-made landscape A08-08 (5)

6 Material and methods data gathering Kalkalpen National Park, Austria (1370 m N.N ft) : Herd size 62 cattle 3 free grazing cattle with GPSplus and ALT 2 free grazing cattle only with GPSplus GPS position: 32 s interval + Activity (steps), Laying time, Temperature: 64 s interval GPSplus ALT-Pedometer Kalkalpen National Park Recording of spatio-temporal activity data A08-08 (6)

7 Problems: Material and methods equipment in use - Activity data from the ALT pedometers have to be transferred every 3-5 days via modem (max. distance of 3 m) - GPS data were transferred every 21 days by wired connection, and by this batteries were changed (collars were removed and fixed again or changed to another animal) - Two times of data losses for some days because of software problems - Modem Laptop communication failed one time - not all animals could be found for three times because of bad weather conditions A08-08 (7)

8 Material and methods data analysis A08-08 (8)

9 Pasturing season (86 d) and data collection 7 Simmerl age 20 month (m st ) 41 d 6 Burli, age 13 month (m c ) 17 d GPS 5 Berta age 19 month (f) 20 d Collar No. 4 Flinke, age 18 month (f) 19 d 3 2 Murli (f) Stolze, age 18 month (f) 19 d 66 d GPS + ALT 1 Butzi age 12 month (f) 54 d Outbreak Outbreak A08-08 (9)

10 Pasture area and land use of all observed animals Windfall areas influence the behavior of cattle A08-08 (10)

11 Intensity of land use (50 x 50 m grids) Intensity of land use differs in a wide range! A08-08 (11)

12 Distances and sum_steps of Butzi per day distance sum_steps 1st Battery change and data transmission + validy check 2nd Battery change and data Transmission + validy check Beginning of grazing as an inexperienced cattle in a restricted pasture area New pasture area with more feed but windfall causes extended walking distances to water sources Unrestricted pasture area with decreasing growth A08-08 (12)

13 Activity of Butzi at June 21, 2007! avg_hur (average head up ratio) avg_hur [n] Head down Head up grazing period A08-08 (13)

14 Distances of all animals and activity of Butzi Walking distances all animals [km/d; June 17, 2007] Activity of Butzi (grazing and not grazing) Stolze Simmerl Murli km/d 20 Berta 15 Burli Butzi Flinke Butzi, June 17 Berta 45.9% 54.1% Head Head down up Monky 54.1% Head down Butzi, June % Head up Butzi, June % Head down 49.5% Head up A08-08 (14)

15 Results - Behavior of animals on alpine pastures differs widely (age, experience, ) - Small groups behave very similar and homogenous, even small groups establish fast after the beginning of the grazing period - Environmental factors influence animals behavior (windfall, rainfall, fog, ) - Management measures can be worked out with the chosen technology - Research attests that a sustainable discharge of environment can be reached by improving pasture management - Preservation of the man-made landscape can be assured by grazing cattle A08-08 (15)

16 Conclusions - GPS collars together with ALT-Pedometers are able to observe and monitor animals and its behavior on alpine pastures - Herds of animals can unattended remain an alpine pastures and controlled remotely - Project made a concrete contribution according to the aims of agricultural policy - It will be feasible to use specific control strategies based on these algorithms. A08-08 (16)

17 Outlook Environment Control algorithms Derivation of GPSplus + ALT-Pedometer Pasture documentation Implementation of Mapping (GIS) Control strategies Controlled influence of land use behavior Intelligent landscape conservation with farm animals can be yet another strategy in nature protection (Precision Nature Protection Farming)! A08-08 (17)

18 Thank you for your attention! Funded by: The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU is one of Europe's largest foundations and promotes innovative and exemplary environmental projects. A08-08 (18)