Use of the bite counter on sheep for detecting the jaw movements
2006
Kawamura, K.(Gifu Univ. (Japan). River Basin Research Cener) | ; Akiyama, T. | ; Yokota, H. | ; Yasuda, T. | ; Umemura, K.
This study evaluated a neckband bite counter (BC) attached to a collar on sheep, to count biting jaw movements. This device was constructed for detecting biting jaw movements in cattle. A GPS (global positioning system) was also fitted for tracking sheep movement. The mean biting rate of sheep was 58.2 bites per 10 minutes which was 5 times greater than for cattle. Based on 26 observations of actual biting rate, the relationship between bite number estimated by BC and number of actual biting jaw movements from direct observation showed significantly high correlation (RE2=0.804, P0.001), indicating that the true value of biting jaw movements may be predicted by using this relationship. Both 2 and 3-years old sheep had similar liveweight gains with and without fitted measurement devices, however, 4-years old sheep with the devices grew more slowly than 4-year olds without (P 0.05). The combination of BC and GPS technologies can be used to estimate the spatial patterns of grazing pressure at a farm scale and, moreover, can be used to examine the relationships between local landscape features and local grazing pressure patterns.
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