418 Evaluation of an automated system for measuring individual animal water consumption

Abstract SmartWater is an automatic watering station that measures the volume of water consumed by individual animals when visiting the system. The self-contained, portable system is constructed of a steel frame, two load cells, and a stainless-steel water trough that measures 0.1 m3 with a water capacity of 113 L. SmartWater refills automatically when the water mass is below 55 L, refilling for 120 s, or until the water mass reaches 70 L. The flow rate of water entering the system and the weight of the bin are measured every second in L/s and L, respectively. When the bin is being refilled, animals are still able to drink from the system. Animal water intake during a visit is measured by summing the amount of water dispensed into the bin and the difference in bin weight at the start and end of the visit. Water intake days are considered valid if the unknown percentage is less than 5% of the total daily water intake, where unknown intake is defined as feed mass disappearance that cannot be assigned to an EID. Invalid days are excluded from final datasets. System performance was evaluated using 17 Angus heifers (body weight = 248 ± 37 kg) in a 55-d trial period. Animals were given ad libitum access to two SmartWater systems, and all animals successfully adapted to the system. Mean daily visitation was 2.7 ± 0.4 and average visit length was 87 ± 175 s. Mean water consumption over the trial period was 13.7 ± 1.8 L. The coefficient of variance of water consumption between animals was 12.8%. The average standard deviation water consumption within animals between days was 5.9%. SmartWater provides an accurate and efficient way to measure water intake of animals in extensive and intensive systems, eliminating the need to manually monitor water levels and refill watering stations.