Study On Design And Application Of Monitor System For Feeding Behavior Of The Water Buffalo In Door

The designs of computerized feeding behavior monitor system include the aspects of hardware design and software programming. We use strain gauge and commercial load cell as the weight sensors. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC- 16) change the signal amplified by the electronical amplifiers into binary information. The data from analog-to-digital converter will be sent to the IBM compatible PC through RS232 serials port. All the data be received by the IBM compatible PC will be treated by the program of FIDAS (Food Intake Data Acquisition System). The Program of FIDAS programmed by Borland Turbo Pascal 6.0, run under Dos platform with text interface simulated windows style. FIDAS has a multi-function and flexible design, and works in real time. FIDAS not only continuous record the data from the ADC- 16 at a variable frequency, but also distinguish the animal feeding behavior according the arithmetic of roll-average in real time mode. In this recording mode, lots of redundancy data will be abandoned. A text-formatted data file will be created automatically. The data files name use the date can be import into kinds of statistical soft ware to analysis. After the feeding behavior monitor system completed successful, it be applied to the study on the feeding behavior of water buffalo in door. Records were made on the feeding activity of eight water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) individually penned in the animal house at Nanjing Agricultural University during June-August 1996, fed ad libitum with Leymus chinensis hay. The feeding hehavior was monitored by the monitor system we deviscd for 30 days.Processed records provided a list of meals for each buffalo on each day. Meals taking place over many days for each animal at similar times of day were grouped into clusters by maximizing the distance between clusters and .. minimizing the distance within. Intake parameters analyzed in each cluster included number of meals, starting time, meal duration, meal weight, rate of eating, hunger ratio, and satiety ratio. All the individuals showed a strong stimulation of intake at the time when fresh hay was offered, taking a first meal which lasted an average of two hours at the highest intake rate of the day. Just before a night-time resting period a second big cluster was found. Satiety ratios were shown to increase as the hay proceeded, reaching a maximum in the evening. It is concluded that cluster analysis is a useful tool for summarizing feeding behavior and the feeding behavior of buffaloes is similar to that of cattle kept under similar conditions. At same time, the animal feeding behavior monitor system has been proved is suitable to applied in the study of water buffaloes and other animals also.