HOT ON THE TRAIL of temperature differences in feedlot cattle and what they could mean for management, Dr. Mark Spire is studying infrared thermography. Given a broad enough database for comparison, the Kansas State University researcher says, heat sensing cameras could easily detect everything from bruising to injection site and implant abscesses, even the effect of different feed rations. At right is a steer as seen in infrared.

Kansas Researcher Using Heat
Sensing Technology In Feedlot

By David Bowser

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Like something out of a science fiction movie, Dr. Mark Spire with Kansas State University's Food and Animal Health and Management Center studies the wildly colored images on the television screen before him.

Spire is leading a study on using infrared thermography to develop livestock health and ration management programs and in sorting cattle.

A camera similar in appearance to a video camera is pointed at a small pen of two calves brought in from the university's feedyard, but the television monitor to which the camera is attached shows the calves in vivid greens, yellows and reds.

The color of the hide doesn't matter in the thermal photography, Spire says.

"Color doesn't influence us on this thing the way we use this camera," Spire says. "I don't care if they're black, white, yellow. I don't care what they are."

One of the calves on the television monitor has green highlights. The other has less green and more yellow and red.

"That tells us it's a warmer calf," Spire says.

He says there is about an eight degree surface temperature difference between those calves.

"I also know that the calf on the right is gaining over three pounds a day, and the calf on the left is gaining a little over a pound a day," he says.

The animal that's showing more red is generating more heat, he says, pointing to the television monitor.

"Just the amount of energy that's given off will show up and can be measured by this camera," Spire says. "If we multiply this out and take a set of a 100 head of cattle and start screening over them, we could see the differences in metabolic energy that is being given off. What we're trying to do with that is find a correlation between those thermal profiles and what the animals are actually doing performance and health-wise.

"If we can understand what this camera is telling us, then we could potentially go back and start developing some management profiles that are going to impact that."

It can also detect various abscesses and injection site reactions.

"Anything that causes inflammation, causes increased circulation at the skin, is going to show up as a hotter zone," Spire explains.

Not all problems lend themselves to detection with this system, he admits.

"Pinkeye is tough to pick up," he says. "We've looked at some calves with pinkeye and it's tough to pick up because the body is so hot and it shows through the eye."

While research is still being developed concerning the health aspects, Spire says that by continually monitoring cattle with this system, they can get an idea about where individuals in a set of cattle are with regard to gain.

Playing with the system and learning its limits, Spire says, has been fun as well as educational.

"We've used it informally," he laughs, "to look for hangovers in our students. People with hangovers tend to give nice light heats."

It will pick up the heat given off the face of a man using snuff, but it won't pick up his eyes if he's wearing glasses. The camera can't penetrate glass.

While there is much that infrared thermography can do, there are also limitations. It can't be used to scan internal organs. It only sees the surface of an animal, and it can't see through walls.

"The thing about a thermal camera," Spire says, "it really only measures the interface between the atmosphere and the hair."

They have run studies to examine damaged organs in cattle that have been slaughtered, and the organ damage doesn't generally show up in their video footage, although other symptoms that may indicate problems with a particular organ may appear.

"Anything that affects the blood supply which affects the surface, you can pick up," Spire says.

Although still in the research stages, Spire says there is a range of possibilities for such a system.

"What we're trying to discover with the camera is if there is a difference in the amount of energy an animal gives off," Spire says. "Anything above absolute zero temperature is going to give off energy."

They are studying the temperature progress within the range that livestock operate and the environment within which they operate. They're trying to build different types of profiles under disease, under different weather conditions, under different rations and under stress.

"There are a number of things," Spire says. "We're trying to set up a discovery process with our research here at Kansas State."

They started with basic research. One of the first things they did was brand identification, because they were looking at hide implications.

"We've looked at stress in the animals," Spire says. "We started looking at differences in animals, some real easy things on the surface of these animals."

They also looked at abscesses, lameness and injection site reactions.

In their pictures, white is the hottest temperature and black is the coldest.

They've been able to pick up implant abscesses and injection site problems. They also have taken pictures of silos; because of the heat retained by the grain in them, they can tell how full each silo is.

"We've done a number of experiments like injection site reactions with different products," Spire says. "We've also done work with commercial companies, looking at implants."

Some of their work has involved scanning for implant problems as a camera moves down a bunk line.

"An implant abscess will show up on the front of the ear as well as the back, Spire says.

"It makes it easier for us," he says. "If we're going to run down a bunk line, we're going to be looking more at the heads of the animals than at the bodies. We can pick that up."

From that, they have developed a screening system to look at abscessed implants.

"We also found out very early in our system that it doesn't do one bit of good if you can't tell who the animals are," Spire says.

So they developed an identification system that could be used. A conventional eartag will generally show up black, or cold, on their scan. They developed a tag that the camera could read. Now they can scan the animals in the day and at night since the camera detects ranges in temperature, not light.

"From those things we moved into other types of work," Spire says.

They've looked at using the system for health work, looked at cattle at receiving, and investigated animals on different rations.

"We've done some work with some different infectious agents," he says. "We've got a number of trials here to try to answer the question of whether this is another tool for producers. Right now, just from shear numbers, it's more of a feedlot-adapted system than it is for cow-calf operations."

They're still working on using the system to develop a database that might indicate how calves will perform based on the conditions when they were bought. They are trying to develop data on fat cover and a thermal profile and work out a correlation as they monitor a cow herd.

There are also some draw backs, the cost of the system, for one. The camera he uses runs about $50,000, a prohibitive figure for most operations, but newer systems are coming out that are less expensive, and there are applications where less sophisticated cameras can be used. There are also applications where more sophisticated cameras will be needed.

"There are certain things that will be point-and-shoot," he says.

If, for instance, he wants to go back and use the system as a sorting tool in connection with such things as dark cutters or total health aspects, then the system will need to be more advanced.

Perhaps the biggest drawback now is the lack of comparison data, but then that is what Spire's research is all about, building a database.

The system itself, Spires says, is vulnerable to weather conditions and distance.

Sixty feet is about the maximum predictable range of the camera and lens he's currently using. That can be a problem in a feedyard where the pens are 300 feet deep. He expects this to change, however, as the system evolves and improves. In addition it may not be necessary to cover the whole pen.

"We want to get it down to bunk level, where you drive down the bunks and look," he explains.

On the plus side, the camera can read images up to six feet away at midnight. The available light has little to do with the image picked up by the camera.

While light of and by itself won't influence the system, Spire says ambient temperature will.

"Weather will influence the system," he says. "Ambient temperature is probably your biggest influence."

If the ambient temperature starts getting above or below an animal's "neutral" zone, it can affect the system. Wind, too, will effect it when shooting cattle over a distance.

"It can play tricks on the camera," Spire says.

And moisture can be a factor.

"Anytime you have moisture, if a steer is wet, it can have an effect on the scanner," Spire says.

A comparison on a 38-degree day between a wet and a dry steer found a 15-degree difference between the animals.

"Whether they're long-haired or short-haired can have something to do with it," he adds. "Mother Nature put a coat on them for a reason."

The system doesn't do well with mud and manure, either.

"If you remember seeing the movie 'Predator,' with Arnold Schwarzenegger, where he smears himself with mud, that was a true deal," Spire says. Mud will trap the heat in, and it won't show up on the surface.

In the movie, the predator, who reads thermal signatures, didn't see Schwarzenegger's character because of the mud on his body.

They have recommended that if the system is being used in a feedyard, readings should be taken at the same time each day for consistency's sake.

Right now, a lot of the interpretation depends upon the person reading it, similar to early-day ultrasound systems.

As the database grows and becomes broader, Spire foresees an eventual plug-in system where the input will be compared to stored data and the results will be more consistent and rely less on individual human interpretation.

They started with the K-State system in 1995, and it is still evolving as they build databases to establish a baseline.

Right now, in a sorting scenario, for instance, the animals can only be compared to their contemporaries that are being screened at the same time.

Using the two calves in the pen before him, Spire explains that in comparing just those two animals to each other, he would probably sort off the cooler of the two as a dark cutter, but knowing what he does about their rations and the trials in which they are involved, he knows the difference is due to the ration.

"There's no way that animal is going to be a dark cutter," Spire says.

Eventually, Spire sees a system that will use a broad database for comparison, but that will take time.

"I'd like to see something functional within five years," he says.