Real-Time Measurement of the Daily Total Locomotor Behavior in Calves Reared in an Intensive Management System for the Possible Application in Precision Livestock Farming

Intensive farm conditions have an impact on welfare and can reduce the locomotor behavior of calves. The Actiwatch-Mini® (Cambridge Neurotechnology Ltd., Cambridg, UK), an actigraphy-based data logger was used to record the total locomotor behavior of 30-day-old calves, which showed diurnal daily rhythmicity. An individual daily rhythm of total locomotor behavior has also been found and varied in the same subject from day to day, and from subject to subject, and these variabilities need to be taken into account during the farm monitoring.