This session will include the first of two Aberystwyth University Research presentations.

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is a rapidly expanding field within production animal management, leveraging advances in sensor technologies, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, health, and welfare outcomes. This session will explore the application of PLF approaches to sheep production systems, with a particular focus on the use of deep learning models to automatically detect straining behaviour in ewes during lambing. Attendees will gain insight into the development and validation of a computer vision model trained on video data, including key considerations around data annotation, model performance, and real-world deployment in farm environments.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concept of Precision Livestock Farming and its role in modern animal production systems.
• Describe how deep learning and computer vision can be applied to behavioural monitoring in livestock.
• Recognise the challenges involved in developing and validating video-based detection models in farm environments.