Sheep health behavior analysis in machine learning: A short comprehensive survey

Abstract

Sheep management and production enhancement are difficult for farmers due to the lack of dynamic response and poor welfare of the sheep. Poor welfare needs to be mitigated, and each farm must receive an expert-level assessment of critical importance. To mitigate poor welfare, researchers have conducted machine learning-based studies to automate the sheep health behavior monitoring process instead of using manual assessment. However, failure to recognize some sheep health behaviors degrades the performance of the model. In addition, behavior challenges, parameters, and analysis must be considered when conducting a study based on machine learning. In this paper, we discuss the different challenges: what are the parameters of the sheep health behaviors, and how to analyze the sheep health behaviors for automated machine learning systems to be helpful in the long term? The hypothesis is based on a different review of the literature of precision-based animal welfare monitoring systems with the potential to improve management and production.

Keywords

• Sheep health behaviors
• Machine learning
• Welfare monitoring
• Precision management
• Production enhancement
• Automated assessment