# A Non-Invasive Continuous Respiration Rate Monitoring Device for Dairy Cattle Under Commercial Farm Conditions

## TL;DR

A clip-on device that records breathing sounds from dairy cows' nostrils provides accurate, continuous respiration rate monitoring under real farm conditions.

## Contribution

A novel non-invasive, clip-on nose ring device enables long-term respiration rate monitoring in dairy cattle without disrupting their normal activities.

## Key findings

- The device achieved high accuracy in measuring respiration rate with a mean absolute error of 1.47 breaths per minute.
- The system revealed consistent diurnal respiration patterns over multiple days without baseline drift.
- The device functions stably during normal farm activities and provides reliable long-term recordings.

## Abstract

Breathing rate is an important sign of health, stress, and heat strain in dairy cows, but it is usually measured by visually counting body movements for short periods of time. This approach is labor-intensive and cannot provide continuous information. Camera-based systems may require special installation, stable lighting, or controlled positioning of animals, which limits their use on commercial farms. In this study, we developed a small clip-on nose ring device that records breathing sounds directly at the nostril. The device can be easily attached without modifying the barn or using external equipment, and it functions during normal daily activities such as feeding and drinking without disturbing the cow. We tested the system under real farm conditions over several weeks and found that it provided accurate breathing rate measurements and stable long-term recordings. The system also revealed clear daily breathing patterns. This practical and easy-to-use approach may support farmers and veterinarians in monitoring animal health, improving welfare, and detecting problems earlier under everyday farm conditions.

Respiration rate (RR) is a key physiological indicator of health, stress, and thermoregulatory load in dairy cattle, yet continuous RR monitoring under commercial farm conditions remains challenging. In this Technical Note, we present a non-invasive clip-on nose ring device for continuous respiration monitoring based on acoustic recording directly at the nostril. The device integrates a MEMS microphone, embedded electronics, battery, and removable storage in a sealed, mechanically robust housing suitable for real-world barn environments. The system was deployed on five dairy cows under commercial farm conditions, enabling repeated multi-day recordings over several weeks. The respiration rate was extracted offline from raw audio using a deterministic signal-processing pipeline based on multiscale periodicity detection. Algorithm-derived RR estimates were evaluated against manually annotated breath events. Using 10-min rolling median values, the algorithm achieved a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.47 breaths per minute (bpm), a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.92 bpm, and a high correlation with reference values (r = 0.98, R2 = 0.96). In addition to short-term accuracy, the system enabled stable multi-day monitoring. Group-level analysis across all five animals revealed a clear diurnal respiration pattern over multiple consecutive days, with lower RR during nighttime and higher RR during daytime summer conditions, without signs of a baseline drift. These results demonstrate the feasibility of continuous, long-term respiration monitoring in dairy cattle using an audio-based clip-on nose ring device and provide a practical foundation for longitudinal (multi-day, within-animal) RR assessment under commercial farm conditions, with potential for future extensions towards advanced respiratory health monitoring. While the system demonstrated stable performance under summer farm conditions, validation under extreme heat-stress environments and larger animal cohorts is required for comprehensive population-level assessment.