System and method for health monitoring using real-time location

A method for health monitoring, comprising:

• electronically receiving location information associated with a dairy livestock, the location information generated by a plurality of identification devices positioned in a pen that operate in conjunction with a tag worn by the dairy livestock;
• storing the location information associated with the dairy livestock, the location information comprising a location of the dairy livestock within the pen at each of a plurality of times during a first time period;
• determining, based on at least a portion of the stored location information, a turn index parameter indicating a number of times the particular dairy livestock reverses direction during the first time period, wherein the particular dairy livestock reverses direction when a difference in angular direction of the dairy livestock changes by less than ninety degrees or more than two-hundred-seventy degrees;
• and
• determining whether the particular dairy livestock is likely to be in estrus based at least in part upon whether the determined turn index parameter is in excess of a baseline turn index parameter by more than a predefined amount;
• wherein the location information comprises an (X,Y,Z) coordinate.