EweAcT: Ewe behaviour aligned to accelerometer data for activity monitoring in extensive grazing systems

Abstract

Monitoring livestock behaviour under extensive conditions would provide valuable insights to assess animal adaption to environmental perturbations in agroecological systems (e.g., heat waves, parasitism, predator attacks). Animal behaviour can be monitored using accelerometer data collected from neck-collars combined with artificial intelligence models. However, large amounts of accelerometer data aligned with annotated behaviours are necessary to develop accurate models of behaviour prediction. In particular, developing reliable models for extensive systems requires data collected across a wide range of representative conditions. The dataset includes 79 hours of tri-axial accelerometer data aligned with behaviours manually annotated from video recordings for 120 Romane ewes born between 2021 and 2024. The ewes were derived from two divergent genetic lines after three and four generations of selection started 10 years ago: low and high social attractiveness, noted S-and S+, and low and high tolerance towards humans, noted H-and H+. They were reared under the extensive system applied to the Experimental Unit of La Fage (UEF, INRAE, Saint-Jean-et-saint Paul, Aveyron) where 250 sheep were reared exclusively outdoors on 280 hectares of rangeland in southern France. First batch of data was collected on March, June and July 2024 at the UEF under a range of extensive conditions, including sloping pastures and heat-wave periods. Ewes were equipped with accelerometer neck-collars specifically designed for young sheep on pasture. They were grouped on experimental paddocks for 4 to 8 hours and provided with fresh grass and ad libitum access to water. The animals were simultaneously video-recorded using an elevated CCTV camera. Behaviour annotation was carried out using Behavioral Observation Research Interactive Software focusing on the main behaviours on pasture: Grazing, Ruminating, Resting, Moving, and ''Other'', grouping all remaining activities. Annotations and corresponding accelerometer sequences were aligned using Python language, based on a time synchronization procedure. A second batch of data was acquired on November 2025 to supplement the dataset with the moving activity. For that purpose, ewes were equipped with the accelerometer collars and moved on tracks from the housing area to the pastures, corresponding to an approximately 10 minute-walk. The start and end times of the moves for each ewe were used to align the corresponding accelerometer data with the moving activity. These data were then merged with the dataset from the first batch. The resulting dataset is ready to use for applying artificial intelligence models to classify the 5 main behaviours of sheep under extensive grazing systems from accelerometer data.