Towards automatic farrowing monitoring-A Noisy Student approach for improving detection performance of newborn piglets.

Nowadays, video monitoring of farrowing and automatic video evaluation using Deep Learning have become increasingly important in farm animal science research and open up new possibilities for addressing specific research questions like the determination of husbandry relevant indicators. A robust detection performance of newborn piglets is essential for reliably monitoring the farrowing process and to access important information about the welfare status of the sow and piglets. Although object detection algorithms are increasingly being used in various scenarios in the field of livestock farming, their usability for detecting newborn piglets has so far been limited.

Use of insect pest thresholds in oilseed rape and cereals: is it worth it?

Background: Integrated pest management (IPM) uses thresholds to minimize pesticide use, and field monitoring of damaging organisms is an important component to evaluate whether or not thresholds have been breached. However, monitoring requires time and knowledge which impacts costs and benefits. In this study, we evaluated the effects of using insect pest thresholds on time effort, frequency of insecticide treatment and economics in comparison with common farm practices (business as usual) in winter wheat (WW), winter barley (WB) and winter oilseed rape (OSR).

Old breeds, new solutions? Effects of two different traditional sire breeds on skin lesions, tail lesions, tail losses, performance and behaviour of rearing pigs.

Some studies indicated a relationship between modern, fast-growing, lean-meat-producing hybrid pigs and the occurrence of tail-biting, one of the major issues of conventional pig husbandry. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of different local, traditional sire breeds on the behaviour and performance of rearing pigs. Between December 2019 and November 2020, a total of 1 561 piglets were weaned from hybrid sows (Bundes Hybrid Zucht Programm (BHZP) Landrace × BHZP Large White) that were paired with either Swabian-Hall (SH), Bentheim Black Pied (BB) or BHZP-Piétrain (Pi) boars.

Detecting Animal Contacts-A Deep Learning-Based Pig Detection and Tracking Approach for the Quantification of Social Contacts.

The identification of social interactions is of fundamental importance for animal behavioral studies, addressing numerous problems like investigating the influence of social hierarchical structures or the drivers of agonistic behavioral disorders. However, the majority of previous studies often rely on manual determination of the number and types of social encounters by direct observation which requires a large amount of personnel and economical efforts. To overcome this limitation and increase research efficiency and, thus, contribute to animal welfare in the long term, we propose in this study a framework for the automated identification of social contacts.

The Use of Wavelet Analysis to Improve the Accuracy of Pavement Layer Thickness Estimation Based on Amplitudes of Electromagnetic Waves.

The article discusses one of the methods of dielectric constant determination in a continuous way, which is the determination of its value based on the amplitude of the wave reflected from the surface. Based on tests performed on model asphalt slabs, it was presented how the value of the dielectric constant changes depending on the atmospheric conditions of the measured surface (dry, covered with water film, covered with ice, covered with snow, covered with de-icing salt). Coefficients correcting dielectric constants of hot mix asphalt (HMA) determined in various surface atmospheric conditions were introduced.