Say something for me girls.
For years we've domesticated them.
I think it is quite important to know what exactly they're saying.
They've all got very distinct voices so even without looking at them in the herd
I can tell which one is making a noise just based on her voice.
Hopefully one day I’ll be a cow whisperer or a cow-moo-nicator.
My name is Alexandra Green, I am from the University of Sydney
and I am a PhD candidate here studying the vocal behaviour of dairy cattle.
I go out into a field and I record the vocalisations of dairy heifers
in response to different farming contexts.
I love animals, I love cattle, this is my passion.
Growing up in Sydney, I didn’t have much interactions with cattle.
I started working at a pet store when I was 14
and it made me so interested in their behaviour
and what they are saying
and what they are doing and why they are doing this.
Girls!
Hello!
So I am currently looking at feed anticipation.
And feed frustration as well as oestrus, or their heat cycle
and also the vocalisations in response to social isolation
since they are such a social species.
They've all got very distinct personalities.
You have got your chatty cows, you have got your shy cows.
I have one girl, she won’t shut up.
This is Cheddah, she’s the little runt of the herd.
She gets bullied by the other girls because she is a bit smaller
and they have a hierarchy.
She knows she can get food from me without being bashed.
I try and take selfies with her but she gets a bit shy, don’t ya.
I didn't know what to make of Al at first, when I first saw her
I thought we'd have to put a weight around her leg
to stop her blowing away.
I met Neville probably about a year ago
in the dairy science group.
He has taught me everything I know really about
how to draft cows and what behaviours to look for and just how to act around them.
No I don't think I talk to cattle. I think they talk to me.
After years of walking behind the buggers you tend to pick 'em out.
For years we have known what cattle do
we know from their sound whether or not they are hungry or they're stressed
but no one has actually recorded any of this or
put it in any format that people can understand.
So we're about to start the feed anticipation trial
so we are just going to bring all the cows in
and sort them into their groups of six.
Roley! Get er’ way out!
Get her way back there! They’re happy!
Go back! These cows are feeling good!
Stop there.
Me old dog, he is about eight years old
I think he's going deaf by the way he is working at the moment.
Go back! Come here now Role! ROLEY! You old bugger!
Me whistle’s just dried up.
The device I use, it’s sort of like a FitBit.
So I am just applying this elastic belt which I can then attach...
Woops, sorry girl.
...The heart rate monitors to.
Good girl.
So I have just got to get all my equipment on.
That's her, that was Glenda.
Neville has the high vis on because
I am trying to train the cows to associate
that visual cue with the act of gaining a feed reward.
So ladies, food!
I’ve trained them up so whenever I say that word food
they get really excited because they know
they are about to receive a food reward.
Food!
Now you got to show them what it is for thirty seconds.
Food!
They get a bit rowdy and restless when there is food involved.
And take it back again.
What we usually see with the cattle is that
they produce a nasal call with their mouth closed
and it sort of sounds like a 'mmm' sound.
As they become more excited
or if they need to communicate with a herd mate that's far away
they will then start to open their mouth and produce
a louder [cow moos]
sounding call.
Shake it a bit, show them what it is.
Food, food!
They believe now that they are allowed to have the food.
The next step would be actually analysing this
with a computer program called PRAT.
It's primarily used to assess human voice
however I have adapted it so we can look at cow calls.
This first bit here is produced nasally
and then as the wave form increases here
this is where she opens her mouth.
This blue line here, this is the pitch of the call
and this is what we use to assess how aroused
or excited the animal is in a certain situation.
It all relates back to their emotions
and what they are feeling at the time.
It’s important to know that each animal is individually cared for
and if they are telling us what they are saying then
that’s just amazing.
It gives us so much information about
their welfare and their condition.
We need to have this information
so people don't come to us and say
"Oh that cow is crying, oh that cow is sad."
We know what they are doing.
We can tell that now by what Al is doing.
That information is priceless to the beef and dairy industry.
I'd like to say that one day we would be able to develop
a cow dictionary or an understanding of their whole vocal repertoire.
It’s the future, it’s what we should be doing.
Should have done it years ago.