Monitoring system for individual growth monitoring of livestock animals

2:

• The system of claim 1, wherein the image processor is arranged to determine said position dependent second height information by subdividing the field-of-view in a predetermined number of subfields, determining a height information per subfield, and to determine said height of said livestock animal based on said second height information at the subfield at the position of the front legs and/or hind legs, respectively.

3:

• The system of claim 1, wherein the image processor is arranged to subtract said second height information at the position of the hind legs and/or of the front legs from the first height information at the position of the hind legs and/or the front legs, respectively, to thereby obtain a corrected hind leg height and/or front leg height.

4:

• The system of claim 1, wherein the image processor is arranged to determine an interpolated height of a second information between the position of the front legs and the position of the hind legs, and to subtract the interpolated height from the animal part point cloud in order to form a corrected animal height information, and to determine said height of the livestock animal from the corrected animal height information.

5:

• The system of claim 1 wherein the 3D camera is arranged to obtain 3D images repeatedly and wherein the image processor is arranged to determine said second height information from a 3D image obtained immediately after said visit and/or from a 3D image obtained between said visit and a latest previous visit of said livestock animal.

6:

• The system of claim 1, wherein the image processor is arranged to determine a body contour of said live stock animal from said animal part point cloud, and to determine said position of the hind legs and/or of the front legs from said body contour.

7:

• The system of claim 1, wherein the image processor is arranged to assess an animal posture of said livestock animal from said animal part point cloud, and to discard the animal part point cloud in case the animal part point cloud does not fulfil a posture usefulness criterion.

8:

• The system of claim 7, wherein said posture usefulness criterion comprises that a highest part of said animal part point cloud is positioned in a posterior part of the livestock animal.

9:

• The system of claim 7, wherein said posture usefulness criterion comprises that a degree of symmetry of said animal part point cloud with respect to a major axis thereof is at least as high as a symmetry threshold value.

10:

• The system of claim 1, further comprising an animal identification device, arranged to determine an identity of the individual livestock animal at said visit.

12:

• The method according to claim 11, wherein the individual livestock animals are cows.

13:

• The system of claim 1, wherein the individual livestock animals are cows.

14:

• The system of claim 4, wherein the interpolated height is a linearly interpolated height.

15:

• The system of claim 5, wherein the 3D camera is arranged to obtain 3D images at each visit of said livestock animal.

16:

• The system of claim 8, wherein the posterior part is a back half of the livestock animal.