Determination of body measurements on the Holstein cows using digital image analysis and estimation of live weight with regression analysis

In this study, the body measurements (BMs) of Holstein cows were determined using digital image analysis (IA) and these were used to estimate the live weight (LW) of each cow. For this purpose, an image capture arrangement was established in a dairy cattle farm. BMs including wither height (WH), hip height (HH), body length (BL), hip width (HW), plus the LWs of cows were first determined manually, by direct measurement. Then the digital photos of cows were taken from different directions synchronously and analyzed by IA software to calculate WH, HH, BL and HW of each cow. After comparing the BMs obtained by IA with the manual measurements, the accuracy was determined as 97.72% for WH, 98.00% for HH, 97.89% for BL and 95.25% for HW. The LW estimation using BMs was then performed by the aid of the regression equations, and the correlation coefficient between the estimated and real (manual) LW values obtained by weighing was calculated as 0.9787, which indicates the IA method is appropriate for LW estimation of Holstein cows. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.