Value Creation through Precision Livestock

Farming systems
Daniel Berckmans

M3-BIORES KU Leuven - Belgium

Measure, Model & Manage Bio Responses
Conference on State-of-the-Art Technology to Drive
Agriculture Productivity in the Next Quarter of the Century
28-30 June 2016
Tokyo, Japan

Overview
Challenges for Livestock Production
What is PLF?
Basic principles of PLF
Examples of PLF systems
Business Models

Conclusions
M3-BIORES KU LEUVEN

M3-BIORES team

253 A-Publications
359 Conference papers

17 products
2 spin-off companies

15 patents
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Challenges for livestock production

Problem of monitoring animals

Livestock farming in the past

Farmer had the time to use audio-visual scoring

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Worldwide Individual Meat Consumption

Source: FAO (2010)

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Numbers of animals
Number of farmers

Resulting in

High number of animals per farm

Less available time per individual animal
More welfare and other problems
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Challenges for livestock production

Over 60 billion animals are slaughtered every year, increase
with up to 40%?
Health: Relationship between animal health and healthy food
Animal welfare (e.g. EU)
Environmental Issues
Social importance
Economic importance including Valorisation of knowledge

3 approaches in Europe with focus on

the animal

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First approach: Iceberg Indicator (1)

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Second approach: Welfare Quality (2)

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Europe has invested in a methodology to quantify

Animal Welfare
Welfare Quality

Procedure: Experts do audio-visual scoring by visiting

farms and looking to (behaviour) of animal.

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TomorrowAutomated Systems
Technology can help to quantitatively measure behaviour,
health and performance of animals.

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Welfare Scoring/Monitoring
Iceberg
indicators
Welfare Quality
once a year

slaughterhouse

Time
Time

PLF-Continuous animal based

management during growth
period
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What is Precision Livestock

Farming (PLF)?

Precision Livestock Farming

Management of livestock by continuous automated real-time

monitoring of production/reproduction, health and welfare of
livestock and environmental impact.

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Internationalisation
7 European PLF Conferences

4 Smart Sensors Workshops

2000: Silsoe
2002: Bremen
2004: Leuven
2006: Gargnano

EC-PLF
CIGR
ASABE
EurAGENG
ISAH
...

EU Projects:
-Bright Animal
-ALL-Smart-Pigs
-BioBusiness
-EU-PLF

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The basic principles of PLF

Position Steering
wheel

Process

Direction

MEASURE

MEASURE

PREDICTION

1
FEEDBACK

Desired direction
MODEL-BASED
CONTROLLER
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Methodology
Position and balance
on the board

MEASURE

Direction

MEASURE

PREDICTION

FEEDBACK
3

Desired direction

Prediction-based
controller
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1991: Modern control theory applicable to living organisms?

Process
MICROENVIRONMENT

DYNAMIC
BIORESPONSE

MEASURE

MEASURE

PREDICTION
MODEL
FEEDBACK

3
DESIRED PROCESS
OUTPUT

MONITOR/
REGELAAR
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Model-based Monitoring/Improvement of
Bioresponses (1991)

Improvement

Monitoring

Process
MICROENVIRONMENT

MEASURE

DYNAMIC
BIORESPONSE

MEASURE

Algorithms
FEEDBACK

3
Controller
DESIRED PROCESS OUTPUT
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A living organism is a CITD system

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A living organism:
Complex

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Living organisms are ...

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...individually different

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A living organism:
Individual

Heartbeat (bpm)

Complex

Time (s)

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A living organism:
Complex

Individual

Time
N

population
Individual

Individual

Response
variable

Av. population
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A living organism:
Individually different

Identical

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A living organism:
Complex

Individual

Time-Varying

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13

16

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HEAT PRODUCTION (W/KG)

HEAT PRODUCTION (W/KG)

Example: Heat production of broiler chickens

5 days old
30 days old

15

14

13

12

11

10

8
11
0

TIME (HOURS)

7
0

TIME (HOURS)
MEASURED
MODELLED (1ST ORDER)
MODELLED (2ND ORDER)

MEASURED
MODELLED (1ST ORDER)

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A living organism:
Complex

Individual

Time-Varying

Dynamic

Living organism = CITD - system

1. Measure
2. Model

3. Manage &
Monitoring

In an on-line way

M3-BIORES
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Examples of PLF
Technology:
What is possible today?
Fully automated monitoring

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Infection Monitoring by
On-line Pig Sound Analysis
i.c.w. University of Milan, SoundTalks NV, Fancom BV

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Health monitoring by on-line sound analysis:

On-line cough recognition algorithm in pig stables

35LEUVEN
M3-BIORES
M3-BIORES
KU LEUVEN
KU
- PLF Course

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On-line cough recognition algorithm in pig stables

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PCM: Results

Pigs ill again

Pigs ill upon entering

Animals again ill

Animals treated

Animals
treated

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MAIN FUTURE APPLICATIONS

REDUCING THE USE OF ANTIBIOTICS
sound
V(t)

micro

T
Q(t)

Sound
analysis

infection

Therapeutic
decision

Climate
controller

Antibiotics

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Example: Monitoring of
drinking behaviour of pigs
(health)

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Monitoring of drinking behaviour

in pigs (i.c.w. Ughent, Fancom BV)
Monitoring water usage as indicator for health
status
Estimate hourly water use in a pig pen by
analysing hourly duration of drink nipple visits

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Model-based monitoring of water use

Images
Water flow
measured
Detection of
visits

Water use
from water
meters

Compare

Water use
estimated
from image
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Transfer
function
modelling

Duration of
visits

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Model-based detection of visits

Drink
nipple

Threshold

T = duration of the visit

Play
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Results

Hourly water use can be estimated with an accuracy of

92% or 200 ml over 13 days
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Continuous automated monitoring

of feed intake of broilers by sound
technology

Play

Play

Continuous recording of sounds (top) and individual pecking

sounds (bottom) as extracted by the algorithm.
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Results and Discussion

Data Set

Number of
pecking
(Algorithm)

Number of
pecking
( Video
Labelling)

Accuracy of
Algorithm
(%)

True
Positive

False
Positive

113

105

93

105

99

95

96

95

109

106

98

106

34

107

101

94

101

35

98

91

93

91

36

95

88

92

88

TotalAverage

3707

3447

93

3447

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More Results

Minutes

Number of
peckings per
experiment

13

1193

12

759

18,98

0,198

18,78

0,025

10,3

895

24,17

0,222

23,94

0,027

0,92

15

1250

32,50

0,236

32,26

0,026

0,73

13,5

1283

30,79

0,365

30,43

0,024

1,19

15

1460

35,04

0,348

34,69

0,024

0,99

7,04

651

16,28

0,168

16,11

0,025

1,03

4,35

468

12,17

0,111

12,06

0,026

0,91

7,26

533

13,33

0,124

13,20

0,025

0,93

6,54

583

13,99

0,145

13,85

0,024

1,04

7,43

654

16,35

0,165

16,19

0,025

1,01

6,65

573

15,47

0,155

15,32

0,027

1,00

300,10

25285

633,26

6,22

627,04

0,025

0,98

Exp.
Chickens
1
2

feed uptake Feed loss Feed intake Feed Intake

per
per
per
Per Pecking
experiment experiment experiment
(g)
(g)
(g)
(g)
28,63
0,325
28,31
0,024

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TotalAverage

Feed loss
per
experiment
(%)
1,14
1,04

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Feed Uptake Per Experiment

(g)

35.00

Feed Intake Per Experiment

(g)

35.00

R = 0.9858

30.00
25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00

R = 0.9856

30.00

500

1000

1500

Number of Peckings per Experiment

25.00
20.00

15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
0

500

1000

1500

2000

Number of Peckings Per Experiment

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50

Example : Real time monitoring of

problems in a broiler house
i.c.w. Fancom BV

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eYeNamic monitor tool

Image
pre-processing

Farm manager
Camera network

Farm network

Monitoring software

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Vision-based Early Warning System for

Broiler Houses
Solution?
Farmers can use automatic tools to continuously monitor the welfare and
health of their broilers

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Experiments ground plan

 Detecting malfunctioning in broiler houses

Produce alarms in real-time when malfunctioning happens
(in feeder or drinker lines, light, climate control, etc.)

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Birds and housing

Experiment rounds: 42 days
Initial broiler weight: weight of 405
grams
Broiler type: ROSS 308 broilers
House capacity: 28000 broilers
Climate control: Fancom FUP1EA2

Farmer logbook and manual video

observation as references

Measured vs. modelled

animal distribution
Measured distribution

Distribution (%)

Predicted distribution

Prediction window: 1 light period = 5 hours

26/10 30/10 03/11

07/11

11/11

15/11 19/11 23/11

Date (dd/mm)

27/11

01/12

05/12

Event detection
Feeder line

Defect Feeder line

Measured values
Smoothed values within 25% range
Smoothed values out of 25% range
Predicted values

Problem in
feeding lines

Distribution
(%)

Normal situation

Date(dd/mm)

Detected events in the validation

experiment over 42 days

Electricity
failure

Light
problems

Water supply
problems

Farmers
inspection

Climate control
system problems

Feeding system
problems

Unloading

Conclusion: Events in a broiler house

could be detected using top-view image
analysis with an accuracy of 95.24 %

Vaccination

Some other examples

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Cow lameness monitor: i.c.w. Volcani, DeLaval, Wur Aggression monitor: Umil, TIHO, Fancom BV

Play

Play

Scratching behaviour: Ughent, ILVO

Weight estimation: Fancom BV, Agrifirm

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Play

Play

Real Time Stress Monitoring

Stress Monitoring @ Racing

Joint Development: BioRICS
Problem: high stress levels cause race car pilots to drive at higher risk

Low arousal
High arousal

Play

BioRICS NV

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Stress@work: positive negative stress

Mental energy

Performance

Optimal
Performance
Undermotivation
Laid back
Relax

Anxious
Distress

Eustress
% Stress

burn-out = no return from distress zone when stressor is gone!

BioRICS NV

Real-time stress monitoring for livestock

Existing BioRICS Stress Level

Monitoring

Existing Sensixa eAr-sensor

New technology Delivers:

Realt Time Stress Level Monitoring
Real Time adaptive Algorithms
Wireless connection & recharging
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Business Models

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Value for
farmer:
Welfare
Health

Environmental
Impact

Euros

Labour and Time

Consumer
Social
Recognition

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PLF is a tool that helps farmers and stakeholders

Veterinarians
Researchers
Consumer

Press
Citizens

Governments
Companies

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The PLF Business Model?

Cost of PLF investment & operation shared along the value
creation chain by payment for access to data pool
Tech. Prov.

Breeding

Vets.

Others

PLF Service Provider

Consumer

(funding, set-up, service, data)

Feed

Farmer

Slaughter

Retailer

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General Conclusions
PLF offers fully automated continuous real time detailed
monitoring and management of animals.
PLF brings the farmer to the individual animals that need
his/her attention, active management tool.
PLF is a tool that helps farmers and stakeholders.
PLF will allow the animals to drive the system.
Efficient implementation of PLF needs collaboration between
researchers, farmers, industry and stakeholders!
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Acknowledgments and Disclaimer

This project has received funding from the
European Unions Seventh Framework Programme
for research, technological development and
demonstration under grant agreement n 311825
The views expressed in this presentation are the
sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the European
Commission.

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Thank you
For more information you can check our website:
http://www.m3-biores.be

Contact: daniel.berckmans@biw.kuleuven.be

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