Abstract
ABSTRACTIn china, there is a great variety of sheep production systems, from the most traditional grazing types, mixed (grazing/stabling) to the most technologically advanced facility sheep. Body size parameters can reflect its growth development, production performance and genetic characteristics. So, monitoring body size is very important. In view of the problems or limitations of the present manual measurement, using the tools of measuring stick, tape measure, etc., the sheep having to stand on a flat place with correct posture, a non-contact method for measuring body dimensions of small-tailed Han sheep based on machine vision has been proposed and discussed. This approach is based on a position limit apparatus, computer-assisted visual capture, an automatic foreground extraction algorithm and a measuring point detection algorithm. The measured body sizes include withers height, back height, rump height, body length, chest depth, chest width, abdominal width and rump width. This approach has been examined in a specific farm for a case study. The errors of more than 90% measurements for sheep body size are within 3%. The results indicate that the method based on visual image analysis is effective, and it is especially suitable for the sheep feeding in an intensive and large-scale way.
Highlights
The sheep industry is a significant part in the animal production substructure in China, especially in Inner Mongolia and its surrounding west area, playing an important role in culture, income, employment as well as in nutrition of the household (CSY 2016)
Various studies showed that the body dimensions of sheep can be used to study the interactions between heredity and environment (Dunlop and Young 1966), to assess the growth rate, feed utilization, carcass characteristics in farm animals (Wynn and Thwaites 1981) and to predict the live body weight based on the body measurements (Aziz and Sharaby 1993; Mohammed and Amin 1997; Varade and Ali 1999; Atta and Khidir 2004)
74cm, rump height (RH): 79 cm, body length (BL): 85cm, chest depth (CD): 39 cm) and they were correspondingly determined by the proposed measuring algorithm as well
Summary
The sheep industry is a significant part in the animal production substructure in China, especially in Inner Mongolia and its surrounding west area, playing an important role in culture, income, employment as well as in nutrition of the household (CSY 2016). Body dimensions or linear measurements have been used in conformation appraisal for many livestock species as a supplement to body weights when measuring the productivity. Various studies showed that the body dimensions of sheep can be used to study the interactions between heredity and environment (Dunlop and Young 1966), to assess the growth rate, feed utilization, carcass characteristics in farm animals (Wynn and Thwaites 1981) and to predict the live body weight based on the body measurements (Aziz and Sharaby 1993; Mohammed and Amin 1997; Varade and Ali 1999; Atta and Khidir 2004). Linear size measurements have been suggested as the more objective measures for body conformation of animals (Janssens and Vandepitte 2004)
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