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and farm environmental information are collected through WSNs
5 Related work installed in the farm and visual information about the farm is
acquired through closed-circuit television (CCTV). All this
In literature, various studies on physiological and behavioural environmental and image information about the farm assisted the
responses of cattle have been reported. These studies provide user to control the farm facility from outside the farm.
reliable information about welfare and health status such as grazing Additionally, SMS notice service should be given to the users when
duration which is a vital behavioural characteristic for the owner to the unsafe condition has taken place [52, 53].
know the adequacy of food provided to cattle that affects their In [54], WSN and CCTV have been introduced that is installed
production and welfare. According to the literature, the number of on farms to gather ecological and image information to facilitate
health monitoring systems for cattle has been reported. These farmers for cattle monitoring via the Web outside the farm and for
systems give the idea for the detection of various health-related controlling the farm facilities in remote locations. Jegadeesan et al.
parameters of cattle. With the help of these systems, it becomes introduced a WSN technology in which sensor nodes are deployed
very easy to detect various diseases such as rumination, for computation and communication in various application
temperature, humidity and heart rate as well as nearby temperature. environments [55]. This WSN technology resulted in high safety,
WSNs have attracted a great attention from technological and human quality and high productivity of life through its various
scientific research groups. The monitoring system utilising WSN applications [55].
will be useful to the farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists to observe Ipema et al. performed various experiments in which
their cattle. This can be carried out remotely employing wirelessly temperature sensor equipped into a bolus and located in the rumen
through nodes for giving alerts for any type of abnormalities such of the animal. The results demonstrated that the capsule-based
as critical levels of body temperature and early signs of illness. wireless technology performed well in cattle. In experiments, the
For the consideration of various animal welfare issues, several mote in the rumen conveyed the data to the mote fastened to the
external sensors such as neck collar, ankle ribbon, accelerometer, front leg of the cattle to the base station [56]. The evaluation of
pedometer, and vibration sensor have been developed [45]. cattle welfare has been carried out by wireless monitoring. This
Automated tools are used for an early detection of metabolic enabled the producer to make accurate decisions based on real-time
disorders in cattle's. Tags or collars are placed on the neck of cattle management. Cai et al. introduced a WSN-based remote query
which provided information to the user [32]. The microphone is ammonia sensor to trace high and low concentrations of ammonia
incorporated in a plastic gadget, which is attached to the left side [56]. Simultaneously, heating and ventilation must be minimised to
dorsally on the head collar. The sounds are analysed through a save energy by keeping the temperature at sufficient level.
complex algorithm inside the tag. Based on validation trials from Cugnasca et al. estimated the usefulness and capability of WSN for
the developer, the tag is claimed to detect rumen activity with 97% monitoring environmental variables in animal houses. The nodes
of accuracy. WSNs have been used by several researchers in the were moved through the animal house to reveal various profiles of
form of sensory collars that are mounted to the neck to monitor the luminosity, humidity, and temperature [57]. Darr and Zhao
health of animals [46, 47]. One remarkable system is ‘ZebraNet’ presented a wireless-based data acquisition system to monitor
which is generally used for monitoring [46]. The devices equipped temperature differences in swine barns [58]. Seasonal and
on zebra transmit all measurements (GPS position) to all other environmental changes may influence haematological values in
devices within range. Various static and mobile nodes have been domestic animals. Another foremost issue that worsens the
deployed. The static sensors quantify the moisture of soil, whereas performance of cattle is the thermal environment, especially in
mobile sensors study the behaviour of animals. This method is not high genetic value. The variation in environmental variables such
scalable due to limited storage space on the device; also, the as ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind, and rainfall is
maintenance cost is also high as the retrieval of measurements recognised as the potential hazards in livestock growth and
required manual intervention. Handcock et al. [48] presented a production. Exposure of animals to the hot environment could
satellite, WSN and GPS collars-based animal behaviour monitoring stimulate thermoregulatory mechanisms and produces a reduction
system with its environmental impact. They integrated the sensed in the rates of metabolism, feed intake and productivity [59]. The
satellite images and ground-based sensors for the realisation of the cattle must be in thermal equilibrium with its environment
animal landscape interactions. including air temperature, radiation, humidity and air movement to
Global positioning systems (GPS) are the most widespread maintain homeothermy [60]. Heat stress appears when there is any
systems which are used to estimate the spatial and temporal pattern of conditions that cause an effective temperature to be
distribution of herds and are deployed in outdoor environments higher than the animal's ‘thermoneutral’ zone. Previous studies
[49]. Offline GPS systems are generally used to determine the recommended that temperature-humidity index (THI) can be used
spatial distribution of cattle [50]. The fusion of sensors is carried as a sign of thermal climatic conditions and to measure stress
out to examine several behavioural modes using spatial distribution degree in cattle [61].
of dairy cattle [47]. Recurrent connection loss and high energy Nadimi et al. introduced the on-line monitoring system for
consumption with the satellites in the fields that are enclosed by animals using ZigBee based WSNs. The authors have employed
obstacles such as trees are the foremost shortcomings of GPS- the 2.4-GHz ZigBee-based WSN in a single-hop network to
based systems. Thus, GPS is less reliable and practical for long- quantify head movements of a herd of dairy animal [6, 29]. The
term behaviour registration. Further, the use of offline data loggers issue of animal's presence and their pasture time using WSNs has
and accelerometers has been investigated by attaching them to the been handled [6, 29]. To control the superiority of indoor
hooves of dairy cattle [51]. The animal behaviour is further environment is vital for cattle welfare and health as it directly
classified as stationary or moving. influenced the productivity and its quality. Proper ventilation in the
Mayer et al. have reported that the retrieval of real-time data stables should be maintained so that long-term perilous exposure to
from animal mounted WSNs devices is employed via global ammonia which can lead to stress, health deterioration, and
system for mobile (GSM) infrastructure. GSM-enabled collars are productivity reduction can be avoided. Huircan et al. [62]
too expensive apart from battery life concerns while monitoring introduced cattle monitoring system based on Zigbee with the
large numbers of animals [21]. They formed a WSN platform for localisation scheme in WSN.
monitoring behaviour and health of the animal. In this, cattle are Currently, RFID device technology is employed in various
equipped with both external and internal sensors with the help of agricultural fields to gain transparency of distribution routes and
motes to monitor their intra-rumenal activity [21]. The authors high productivity from the cultivation environment to distribution
have introduced the system that is composed of two parts. The first logistics and production management [24]. RFID/WSN technology
part of the system is used to quantify the health parameters of in the livestock industry is used to monitor characteristics of each
animals in the grazing land. The second part of the system is used animal, their environment and to track breeding history. WSN-
to measure health parameters of animals in the farm. Moreover, it based monitoring of animal health using RFID has also developed
has been used to manage the environment of the farm remotely in [63]. Recently, the development of RFID has opened a new scope
order to increase the production from the farm animals. External for real-time body temperature monitoring in human as well as

146 IET Wirel. Sens. Syst., 2018, Vol. 8 Iss. 4, pp. 143-151
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2018