08/09/2026
🐄 AGRI-VIS CATTLE TRIAL – SOME INTERESTING RESULTS
We’ve been analysing the EasyDraft data from our cattle clothing trial at River Ridge Dairy, and we’re starting to see some very interesting patterns.
The video footage gathered showed me that condition scoring the cows during the trial was also possible using AI and allocating conditions score to each cow electronic ID .
This was important because cow condition can influence behaviour, movement and how an animal responds in a handling situation. Recording condition scores gives us additional context when interpreting the results.
During the early stages, individual cows responded quite differently to the mannequin and clothing treatments.
A few examples from the data:
• Cow 2668 – normal no-mannequin median of 6 seconds, increasing to 16 seconds around conventional high-vis.
• Cow 2954 – no-mannequin median of 7 seconds, increasing to 15 seconds with conventional high-vis.
• Cow 2221 – no-mannequin median of 4 seconds, compared with 13 seconds under conventional high-vis, but she also showed increased times under other mannequin treatments.
• Cow 2941 was particularly interesting. Her normal no-mannequin median was 4 seconds, compared with 15.5 seconds under Agri-Vis and 15 seconds under plain blue. This suggests she may have been responding to the mannequin itself rather than one particular colour or design.
• Cow 2796 showed another different pattern, moving from a 6-second no-mannequin median to 16 seconds with plain blue.
That’s exactly why we’re looking at individual cattle rather than simply saying one colour is “good” and another is “bad.”
Another major observation has been habituation.
During the first exposures we saw some substantial hesitation, including individual cattle balking for more than 30 seconds. As exposure continued, however, the herd generally became increasingly accustomed to the mannequin and its changing clothing.
By approximately 3–10 days, the cattle appeared to be naturalising to the setup and reactions were becoming much less pronounced.
That’s an important result in itself and is helping shape the next stage of the Agri-Vis research.
The next step is to investigate cattle with little previous exposure to high-vis clothing, concentrating particularly on their first encounters before habituation has an opportunity to influence the result.
These are preliminary observations, not proof that any particular shirt causes a behavioural response. But they are giving us some fascinating information about cattle behaviour, individual variation, condition score and how quickly cattle can become accustomed to something new in their environment.
🐄🌾 Agri-Vis – Designed by a farmer. Built for agriculture.
