中国农业科学 ›› 2025, Vol. 58 ›› Issue (23): 5081-5096.doi: 10.3864/j.issn.0578-1752.2025.23.021

• 畜牧·兽医 • 上一篇    

肉牛生产性能智能监测技术研究进展

张帆(), 唐湘方*(), 杨亮, 王辉, 陈睿鹏, 熊本海*()   

  1. 中国农业科学院北京畜牧兽医研究所/畜禽营养与饲养全国重点实验室,北京 100193
  • 收稿日期:2024-08-14 接受日期:2025-10-28 出版日期:2025-12-01 发布日期:2025-12-09
  • 通信作者:
    唐湘方,E-mail:
    熊本海,E-mail:
  • 联系方式: 张帆,E-mail:zhangfan07@caas.cn。
  • 基金资助:
    国家重点研发计划(2023YFD2000701); 山东省重点研发计划(2022TZXD0013)

Research Progress of Intelligent Monitoring Technology for Beef Cattle Production Performance

ZHANG Fan(), TANG XiangFang*(), YANG Liang, WANG Hui, CHEN RuiPeng, XIONG BenHai*()   

  1. Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feeding, Beijing 100193
  • Received:2024-08-14 Accepted:2025-10-28 Published:2025-12-01 Online:2025-12-09

摘要:

随着我国肉牛规模化养殖的快速发展,以物联网、大数据及人工智能为代表的现代智能肉牛养殖技术水平得到不断提高。肉牛个体的身份识别及体重、体尺和采食量等生产性能的实时监测对提高牧场饲养管理水平、降低人员工作量、加快肉牛育种选育进程具有重要意义。个体识别是肉牛个体生产性能监测的基础,当前主要依赖于RFID识别技术和基于图像的深度学习个体识别技术。RFID技术识别精度高,但面临成本高、识别距离短、佩戴工作量大的问题。而基于图像的深度学习识别技术通过分析肉牛的体表花纹、耳标文本、鼻纹、虹膜、视网膜、面部和侧面轮廓等独特生物特征实现个体识别。但其识别效果可能受光照条件和动物个体差异的影响。未来需着力研发能够适应不同环境条件并实现精准、快速、动态的肉牛机器视觉识别技术。肉牛体尺与体重的精准估测主要通过采用2D、3D相机拍摄的二维、三维图像,经过关键特征点的提取分析计算实现。2D相机具有设备获取简单、成本低的优势,但其在测定过程中需要已知尺寸的参照物,且在测量胸围、腹围等曲面特征体尺指标时存在局限性,直接影响了相关体尺测定和体重估测的精准度。相比之下,3D相机能够全方位、立体化获取肉牛体表结构及其与设备的距离信息,从而为多维度体尺体重指标的精准测量提供可能。肉牛采食量自动监测对判断饲料效率至关重要。自动计重料槽借助压力传感器精准计量采食前后食槽重量差值,实现采食量的自动精准测定,但其安装成本高、饲喂不便等问题限制了其应用范围。通过肉牛采食前后饲料的深度图像变化或通过传感器记录采食行为也可有效估测采食量。然而,在实际应用中,饲料组成的复杂性及形态变化可能对监测准确性造成干扰。基于机器视觉的肉牛生产性能测定技术在肉牛生产性能测定上取得了显著的进展,但仍面临诸多挑战,如数据处理量大、环境干扰影响结果准确性和数据深度挖掘利用不足等。未来可采取以下策略:通过边缘计算技术、优化阶段性检测等策略降低设备数据计算负担,提高系统响应速度;探索基于单视角深度相机的三维重建技术,以提高肉牛体尺和体重监测在实际生产应用的可行性;研发适用于不同品种、各生长阶段肉牛的通用预测模型,以增强技术的普适性与实用性;加强多模态数据融合,提高肉牛生产性能监测数据的综合应用价值。智能监测技术是肉牛养殖现代化的关键,通过技术创新与融合,有望实现低成本、高精度、广泛适用的智能化肉牛生产性能监测技术,从而推动肉牛产业智能化升级,提升生产效率与经济效益,满足市场需求。文章系统总结了肉牛养殖过程身份识别及体重、体尺和采食量的智能监测技术,深入分析了我国肉牛生产性能智能监测技术当前面临的挑战和未来发展趋势,旨在为相关智能化监测技术的研发和应用提供参考。

关键词: 肉牛, 生产性能, 智能化, 体尺, 体重, 深度学习, 机器视觉

Abstract:

With the rapid development of large-scale beef breeding in our country, modern smart beef breeding technology, including the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, has been continuously improved. The identification of individual beef cattle and real-time monitoring of production performance, such as body weight, body size, and feed intake, are crucial for improving feeding management, reducing personnel workload, and accelerating the breeding process of beef cattle. Individual identification is the foundation for monitoring individual production performance. Current methods primarily rely on RFID identification technology and image-based deep learning individual identification technology. While RFID offers high accuracy, it faces challenges such as high cost, short identification distance, and significant workload for tagging. Image-based deep learning identification technology identifies individuals by analyzing unique biometric features like body surface patterns, ear tag text, nose prints, iris, retina, facial features, and side profiles. However, its effectiveness can be affected by lighting conditions and individual differences. In the future, it is necessary to develop precise, rapid and dynamic recognition machine vision recognition technology for beef cattle that can adapt to different environmental conditions. Images captured by 2D and 3D cameras can be used for estimation of body size and weight after key feature extraction and analysis. 2D cameras have the advantages of simple equipment acquisition and low cost. However, its reliance on reference objects of known dimensions during the measurement process, as well as the measurement limitations of curved surface characteristic body size indicators such as chest circumference and abdominal circumference, directly affect the accuracy of related body size measurement and body weight estimation. In contrast, 3D cameras can obtain the external structure of beef cattle and the distance information between them and the equipment in a comprehensive and three-dimensional manner, thus providing the possibility for precise measurement of multi-dimensional body weight indicators. Automated monitoring of beef cattle feed intake is vital for assessing feed efficiency. Automatic weighing feed troughs accurately measure intake by calculating the weight difference before and after feeding using pressure sensors. However, the challenges such as high installation costs and operational inconvenience have largely confined their application scope. Feed intake can also be effectively estimated through depth image changes before and after feeding or by recording feeding behavior by using relevant sensors. Nevertheless, in practical applications, the complexity of feed composition can affect monitoring accuracy. The technology for determining the production performance of beef cattle based on machine vision has made remarkable progress. However, it still faces many challenges, such as large amounts of data processing, environmental interference affecting the accuracy of results, and insufficient data development and utilization. In the future, strategies such as edge computing technology and optimizing phased detection can be adopted to reduce the computing pressure of device data and improve the agility of system response. Exploring 3D reconstruction technology based on single-view depth cameras could improve the feasibility of applying body dimension and weight monitoring in practical production settings. Efforts should be dedicated to developing universal prediction models applicable to different breeds and various growth stages to enhance the versatility and practicality of the technology. Strengthening multimodal data fusion will improve the comprehensive application of beef cattle production performance monitoring data. Intelligent monitoring technology is the key to the modernization of beef cattle breeding. Through technological innovation and integration, it is expected to achieve low-cost, high-precision and widely applicable intelligent monitoring technology for the production performance of beef cattle, promoting the intelligent upgrade of the beef cattle industry, improving production efficiency and economic benefits, and meeting market demands. This review summarized intelligent monitoring technologies for beef cattle identification, as well as for estimating body weight, body size, and feed intake. It also discussed the challenges and future development trends of intelligent monitoring technology for beef cattle production performance in China, aiming to provide references for the research and application of related intelligent monitoring technologies.

Key words: beef cattle, production performance, intelligent, body size, weight, deep learning, machine vision