Vol. 11, Special Issue 1 (2026)

Calving is a painful and stressful event for dairy cows, involving significant hormonal, physiological, physical, and behavioural changes. Calving difficulties negatively affect animal welfare, health, performance, and farm economics, making early prediction of calving time essential for timely intervention, dystocia management, and colostrum administration. Conventional methods such as continuous visual observation, hormonal assays, and manual temperature monitoring are time-consuming, costly, and impractical for most intensive dairy systems. Consequently, behavioural changes are widely used to predict the onset of calving and have driven the development of automated detection technologies. Key pre-calving behavioural indicators include reduced feed intake and rumination, altered lying behaviour and activity, tail raising, stepping, head turning toward the abdomen, increased lateral recumbency, and sniffing or licking the ground. These behaviours can be monitored using sensors such as tail, ear tag, noseband, and leg-mounted devices. Feeding, rumination, and activity typically decrease 24 to 4 hours before parturition, while tail raising increases approximately 6 hours before calving. Differences are also observed between primiparous and multiparous cows. Monitoring these behavioural changes enables accurate calving prediction and timely assistance, thereby improving animal welfare and calving outcomes.