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Data from: Can measurements of foraging behaviour predict variation in weight gains of free-ranging cattle?

Metadata Updated: March 30, 2024

Technologies are now available to continuously monitor livestock foraging behaviours, but it remains unclear whether such measurements can meaningfully inform livestock grazing management decisions. Empirical studies in extensive rangelands are needed to quantify relationships between short-term foraging behaviours (e.g. minutes to days) and longer-term measures of animal performance. The objective of this study was to examine whether four different ways of measuring daily foraging behaviour (grazing-bout duration, grazing time per day, velocity while grazing, and turn angle while grazing) were related to weight gain by free-ranging yearling steers grazing semiarid rangeland. These data include measurements interpreted from yearling steer outfitted with neck collars supporting a solar-powered device that measured GPS locations at 5 minute intervals and used an accelerometer to predict grazing activity at 4 second intervals. Average daily weight gains of steers are included as well as an estimate of standing forage biomass derived from the Harmonized Landsat-Sentinel remote-sensing product. These data support research to advance knowledge regarding the use of on-animal sensors that monitor foraging behaviour, which have the potential to transmit indicators to livestock managers in real time (e.g. daily). This approach can help inform decisions such as when to move animals among paddocks, or when to sell or transition animals from rangeland to confined feeding operations. Resources in this dataset:Resource Title: Means of Moonitor Metrics from 2019-2020 Study Periods. File Name: Moo2019-20_dailymetrics_w_ADG_by_studyperiod.csvResource Title: Data Dictionary for Means of Moonitor Metrics from 2019-2020 Study Period. File Name: Moo2019-20_dailymetrics_w_ADG_by_studyperiod_dictionary.csvResource Title: Daily Moonitor Metrics from 2019-2020. File Name: Moo2019-20_dailymetrics_database.csvResource Title: Data Dictionary for Daily Moonitor Metrics from 2019-2020. File Name: Moo2019-20_dailymetrics_database_dictionary.csv

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: us-pd

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Dates

Metadata Created Date March 30, 2024
Metadata Updated Date March 30, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from USDA JSON

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date March 30, 2024
Metadata Updated Date March 30, 2024
Publisher Agricultural Research Service
Maintainer
Identifier 10.15482/USDA.ADC/1524788
Data Last Modified 2024-02-16
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 005:18
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id a77d04ac-f26c-47b6-a066-6292f839f0d0
Harvest Source Id d3fafa34-0cb9-48f1-ab1d-5b5fdc783806
Harvest Source Title USDA JSON
License https://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -104.79154586792, 40.768971768364, -104.63876724243, 40.768971768364, -104.63876724243, 40.870170450813, -104.79154586792, 40.870170450813, -104.79154586792, 40.768971768364}
Program Code 005:040
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 94c78d73aef3116e9bd85ec29f1df01d83d0178c77e1f476feafca56d0079db7
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -104.79154586792, 40.768971768364, -104.63876724243, 40.768971768364, -104.63876724243, 40.870170450813, -104.79154586792, 40.870170450813, -104.79154586792, 40.768971768364}

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