Definition of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Poultry Farming
Poultry Farm Automation refers to the utilization of advanced technologies to control and monitor various poultry farming processes. These technologies encompass sensors, software, and automated systems, aiming to enhance productivity, reduce costs, and improve product quality.
In the simplest terms, artificial intelligence can be defined as the combination of computer science and a set of data to enable machines to perform tasks and solve problems equivalent to human intelligence. Artificial intelligence programming is based on algorithms that analyze and predict data. Advances in artificial intelligence have various aspects, including machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), robotics, and more.
With the increasing demand in the global poultry sector, there is a need for skilled management and breeding. What better way to create rapid change in this age of technological advancement than the scope of automation in every field? In fact, smart poultry farming can be defined as: “A smart poultry management system includes precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies such as smart sensors, farm process automation, and data-driven decision-making platforms.”
Artificial intelligence in the poultry industry helps to address challenges, improve agricultural efficiency, and ultimately maximize profits. The question that arises is: What are the latest innovations in poultry farming, and how can artificial intelligence help producers in poultry farm automation?
- Creating animal welfare and consequently increasing production efficiency, and improving environmental impacts.
- Identifying the weight of poultry with high accuracy.
- Monitoring and control with a precision livestock farming (PLF) system using artificial intelligence.
- Optimization and automation of poultry breeding processes in areas such as egg grading, live embryo identification, incubation condition control, and predicting the probability of egg hatching.
- Saving energy resources.
What is Precision Livestock Farming (PLF)?
Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is a collection of electronic tools and methods used for managing farm animals. PLF involves automated monitoring of animals to enhance production, reproduction, welfare, and their environmental impact.
Beyond software, PLF utilizes tools such as cameras, microphones, sensors, and scanners to automate the control, quality assurance, and data collection processes. These tools monitor animal conditions, feeding, and reactions, simultaneously detecting sudden events. Alerts, along with data, are sent to the producer.
Here are some of the advantages of using PLF in poultry farming:
- Precise monitoring of each bird’s health: Using various sensors, early signs of disease can be detected, preventing outbreaks.
- Precise environmental control: Environmental factors like temperature, humidity, and light are automatically adjusted based on the birds’ needs.
- Improved product quality: By creating optimal conditions for bird growth, higher-quality eggs or tastier chicken meat can be produced.
- Reduced water and feed consumption: Using intelligent algorithms, the exact amount of water and feed required for each bird can be determined, preventing waste.
- Increased animal welfare: By reducing stress and providing comfortable conditions for birds, their welfare can be improved.
- Reduced human labor: Many management processes are automated, reducing human labor and increasing efficiency.
In essence, PLF can significantly improve the performance and profitability of poultry farms.
Ai Weight Scale for Smart Poultry Farm
Weighing is a process that typically causes stress to poultry. However, poultry farmers always measure the weight of the flock to monitor growth trends. With an automated chicken weighing system supported by cameras, this can be done indirectly. These cameras are equipped with sensitive sensors that can very easily report the exact weight of the poultry. The processed data is stored in a database. This information includes items such as weight, health, and tracking of flock weight uniformity. The benefits of this automated intelligent weighing system in poultry farms include:
- High Speed & Large Sample Size Weighing: 3D vision chicken scale cameras weigh chicks at high speed and with a large sample size. By being able to weigh chicks simultaneously, poultry farmers can accurately and efficiently monitor the growth of their flock.
- Automated Data Collection: Unlike traditional systems, these cameras can be connected to poultry management software. As a result, this integrated system eliminates the need for manual record keeping and human error. In fact, by automating data, poultry farmers save time, reduce labor costs, and increase data accuracy.
- Increased Flock Productivity and Performance: Additionally, by reducing stress on birds during weighing, the health and welfare of poultry are increased. This will have a significant impact on better flock performance. Maintaining the health and welfare of poultry is equivalent to better flock performance and, consequently, greater flock profitability.
Monitoring Poultry Welfare with Artificial Intelligence and Detecting Critical Conditions in Smart Poultry Farms
The growing significance of artificial intelligence in the poultry industry has become particularly evident in recent post-pandemic years. The global poultry industry, a crucial component of the world economy and a key indicator of global hunger, faced severe crises and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, both in developed and developing countries. These disruptions included disruptions in the supply chain, quarantine policies, food price fluctuations, and reduced feed resources, leading to a sudden surge in poultry and livestock prices, causing a significant gap between supply and demand.
Artificial intelligence is one of the tools that can be effective in such pandemics. AI can increase operational efficiency and prevent unpredictable challenges by collecting and analyzing data. The growing interest in adopting AI in poultry farming and trade, especially in countries like Europe and the United States, has led to the implementation of more automated agricultural practices than ever before, in a more regulated and risk-free manner.
Monitoring Poultry Welfare with Artificial Intelligence and Detecting Critical Conditions in Smart Poultry Farms
The growing significance of artificial intelligence in the poultry industry has become particularly evident in recent post-pandemic years. The global poultry industry, a crucial component of the world economy and a key indicator of global hunger, faced severe crises and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, both in developed and developing countries. These disruptions included disruptions in the supply chain, quarantine policies, food price fluctuations, and reduced feed resources, leading to a sudden surge in poultry and livestock prices, causing a significant gap between supply and demand.
Artificial intelligence is one of the tools that can be effective in such pandemics. AI can increase operational efficiency and prevent unpredictable challenges by collecting and analyzing data. The growing interest in adopting AI in poultry farming and trade, especially in countries like Europe and the United States, has led to the implementation of more automated agricultural practices than ever before, in a more regulated and risk-free manner.
Monitoring Heat Stress in Poultry Through Temperature Analysis and Control Using Intelligent Systems
Another way to improve poultry welfare is by monitoring bird behavior. Without the use of new technology, this task can be very challenging, especially considering the large number of chickens. However, AI-equipped cameras can simplify this process.
These systems are fed images of normal chicken postures and movements, allowing them to identify anomalies and link them to specific health or behavioral issues.
For instance, when chickens start engaging in cannibalistic behavior, the system can immediately alert the farmer once it’s detected by the camera. This common problem in poultry farms is difficult to solve using traditional methods. However, with computer vision, the issue can be quickly resolved and losses can be prevented.
Monitoring Heat Stress in Poultry Through Temperature Analysis and Control Using Intelligent Systems
As you know, maintaining a controlled temperature in poultry houses is crucial. Both excessive heat and cold can cause irreparable damage to the flock. Therefore, monitoring temperature fluctuations and changes using sensitive thermometers and sensors is essential. Data collection systems respond automatically when temperatures exceed safe thresholds for poultry, activating or deactivating air conditioning and ventilation systems as needed.
Article: Symptoms of Heat Stress in Poultry
Smart Lighting Control in Poultry Farms: A Revolution in Poultry Farming
Smart lighting control systems have revolutionized the poultry farming industry. By replacing traditional incandescent bulbs with LED lights and utilizing advanced sensors and software, these systems enable precise and intelligent control of lighting in poultry rearing environments.
These systems employ various sensors to gather data such as light intensity, temperature, and humidity, which is then transmitted to a central system. The central system processes this information and, based on pre-programmed schedules, sends necessary commands to adjust the lighting of LED lamps.
Key advantages of smart lighting control systems in poultry farming include:
- Increased energy efficiency: LED lamps consume significantly less energy compared to incandescent bulbs. Additionally, smart control systems allow for the adjustment of lighting based on the specific needs of poultry, preventing energy waste.
- Improved product quality: By precisely adjusting lighting schedules, the quality of poultry products such as eggs can be positively influenced. For instance, egg yolk color and shell thickness can be enhanced.
- Reduced costs: Decreased energy consumption and improved product quality lead to reduced production costs and increased profitability for poultry farms.
- Enhanced poultry health: Precise light adjustment and the creation of a suitable lighting environment positively impact poultry health and well-being, reducing the incidence of diseases.
- Remote control: Using relevant software, poultry farmers can remotely monitor and control the poultry farm’s lighting system anytime, anywhere.
- High flexibility: These systems allow for the customization of lighting schedules for different stages of poultry growth, enabling farmers to tailor lighting programs to their specific needs.
Emphasizing the predictive nature of AI
Monitoring poultry behavior and performance, and detecting critical conditions using AI systems.
If poultry are not properly cared for in terms of water and feed, there can be serious consequences for the flock, such as health and behavioral issues. By continuously collecting data, AI systems equipped with weight sensors can provide early warnings of any deviations from the norm.
Additionally, by collecting existing data, experts may be able to identify correlations between environmental changes and feeding patterns. These correlations can lead to improved welfare practices for poultry in poultry farms. For example, they can easily track birds that consume more food than others and identify the reasons.
AI-Powered Poultry Disease Detection and Prevention
Artificial intelligence systems are revolutionizing poultry farming by enabling early detection of diseases and abnormal behaviors. Equipped with advanced sensors, these systems collect data on various health parameters and use AI algorithms to analyze and classify this information. This allows for the rapid identification of pathogens.
Precise biosensors can quickly detect potential viral and bacterial pathogens in the air and droppings, enabling prompt interventions. In intelligent systems, poultry droppings are analyzed to identify any anomalies in the gut microbiome.Additionally, birds are continuously monitored for signs of illness, allowing for early detection of latent diseases.
AI has proven to be highly effective in predicting potential disease outbreaks before they occur. By analyzing data, these systems can track disease carriers, identify transmission patterns, and provide early warnings to prevent future outbreaks.
In AI-powered poultry farms, robots can interact directly with birds. When a robot detects a disease or infection, it can quickly isolate the affected bird or group of birds.
From a sustainability perspective, poultry farms can utilize technology to enhance the quality of materials and nutrients recovered from waste. This includes advanced adsorbents for ammonia capture in poultry houses and bioreactors for removing phosphorus compounds from poultry litter.
How can AI be used to monitor poultry vocalizations?
Another crucial factor in poultry farming is the sound produced by birds. Poultry vocalizations provide valuable insights into flock health and behavioral issues. AI-powered sound recognition systems, utilizing SSL (Self-Supervised Learning) can identify anomalies and alert farmers. These AI systems analyze recorded sound patterns to detect deviations from the norm.
Precise Fertile Egg Detection in Hatcheries Using Machine Learning
By employing machine learning and artificial intelligence, poultry farmers can now accurately distinguish fertile from infertile eggs. This technology optimizes hatchery operations by preventing the unnecessary expenditure of resources on non-viable eggs.
Article: Modern Hatchery Techniques in Broiler Chicken Production
Technological Gaps Between the Current State and the Foreseen Future
In recent years, the use of robots in poultry farms has increased significantly. Notable examples include egg-collecting robots and disinfection robots. To address diseases and ensure food quality and safety, there is a pressing need for low-cost biochemical sensors capable of rapidly and accurately detecting pathogens and viruses. Current methods for diagnosing diseases like avian influenza, such as virus isolation, RT-PCR (Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction) rapid tests, and genetic immunoassays, have their limitations. Primarily, these tests can only be conducted in veterinary laboratories, and the required equipment is expensive. Additionally, antigen capture immunoassays, although faster than other methods, are costly and lack sensitivity. Consequently, in AI-based models, a large amount of data needs to be collected. Data should encompass disease signs and symptoms, such as coughing, lethargy, closed eyes, and more. Therefore, in addition to providing robots with ample data for disease and symptom detection, the robot should also be able to interact closely with individual birds. To achieve this, the robot’s movement path must be designed to allow for the assessment of the health of each bird and the detection of disease symptoms.
Frequently Asked Questions about Using AI in Poultry Farming
We’ve compiled a list of FAQs to answer your questions about this topic.
Why do poultry farmers choose fully automated poultry equipment?
The use of modern systems and artificial intelligence saves time, money, and material resources. Many of these devices are available on the market and help poultry farmers. The input of automated poultry equipment into the market not only increases automation control but also improves production efficiency.
What does Automate Poultry Farming Equipment Include?
The breeding equipment primarily consists of battery cage systems, automatic water supply systems, automatic feeding systems, egg collection systems, automatic manure cleaning systems, automatic environmental control systems, and more. It also performs certain poultry farming calculations that are important during the breeding period.
How can artificial intelligence help recover costs in the poultry industry?
Another benefit of modern systems is the control of diseases and drug residues, which is the foundation for fulfilling poultry health and safety requirements. Artificial intelligence greatly assists in optimizing flock performance by rapidly detecting diseases, controlling water and feed for chickens, monitoring temperature and environmental conditions, and more. Additionally, it provides significant and immediate assistance to poultry farm personnel in various tasks.
References:
