Smart farming: Lallemand teams up with tech provider to boost efficiency of farm trials
Poultry Sense provides farmers with both hardware and software technology that is designed to capture real-time data to increase transparency and accurately inform on-farm decision making.
Hannah Elliott, monogastric sales and technical support at Lallemand Animal Nutrition, commented on the research initiative: “We’re eager to embrace this new, innovative technology, which will enable us to look at poultry houses on a zone-by-zone basis as opposed to a whole house basis. This will give us much more accurate insight on how birds are performing and behaving when our products are used.”
Barry Thorp, veterinary advisor at Poultry Sense, told FeedNavigator about the operating system being deployed in this project:
“Our technology captures real-time data via wireless IoT sensors on a zone by zone basis throughout poultry houses. This data is then transferred via a long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) to the cloud-based Poultry Sense application allowing data to be recorded, monitored and analyzed remotely.
“The data collected is automatically analyzed through a series of algorithms allowing any changes in bird performance or the environment to be identified quickly.”
The real-time data, he said, is displayed on a web-based graphic user interface (GUI) which showcases real-time data in a user-friendly manner offering live, valuable insights, which allows vets, nutritionists and producers to make evidence-based decisions.
The system also allows for summary reports to be accessed online or printed, said Thorp.
The type of data that it records includes environmental parameters such as air pressure, humidity, temperature, light intensity (lux) and CO2. These data are collected via wireless sensors.
“Precise water consumption can also be measured through an ultrasonic water meter and real-time bird weights can be collected via a wireless, portable floor mounted weigh platform,” said the veterinary advisor.
Increasing transparency in trials
Thorp summarized how the data analysis will improve the reliability and credibility of commercial farms trials:
Firstly he said, the Poultry Sense solution provides producers, vets and nutritionists (in this case Lallemand) with immutable, accurate real-time data across the entire poultry house 24/7.
"So, for example, the temperature variation is known within the different zones of the poultry house. [Conventional temperature monitoring would just be the average house temperature]. This means that when comparing birds’ performance in different poultry houses in a trial, that the potential effects of any differences in the house environments can be accurately and precisely quantified and assessed. This allows any changes in bird performance or the environment to be identified quickly, helping to improve the efficiency and reliability of commercial trials."
Secondly, access to detailed analysis can also highlight if these changes are likely to be down to introducing or changing a product within the ration/feed material or due to an environmental factor, he said.
Thirdly, he said data is not just collected and analyzed on a poultry house by house basis, but on a zone by zone basis, providing detailed insight on bird health, welfare and performance at an intricate level.
And, he noted that, there is enhanced credibility in that the real-time data is analyzed by specialist poultry vets that have several years’ experience working in the industry.
Finally, said Thorp, the data and analysis produced can also be used to support existing the European based data and other technical data that Lallemand already has.
