Among the hottest — and coolest — technologies for future poultry production is data monitoring and analytics. Since presentations last November at the first-ever Poultry Tech Summit (PTS), three such innovations are gaining attention and commercial interest in the marketplace.
Harnessing poultry industry’s big data
The three tech innovations analyze the vast volume of data that poultry operations generate. They aim to go the step further to make the data actionable.
AbuErdan is continuing to commercialize its poultry management software technology that manages poultry farms with the whole value chain. The software uses predictive analytics and deep learning analysis to manage the live production of poultry while providing traceability throughout the supply chain.
“New functionality to prevent future loss has been developed to support the executive’s important business decisions that affect profitability and productivity on the long run,” said company co-founder Neamat El Tazi.
As the company scales for commercial production, a more affordable product line targeting small and medium poultry growers has also been added.
Additional investment was secured after presenting at PTS, and the company is pursuing commercial leads and contracts in the U.S., Europe and Africa, El Tazi said.
“AbuErdan is now focused primarily on commercialization as AbuErdan begins to ‘harvest’ its qualified commercial pipeline, moves clients across multiple geographies into implementation, and further grows its qualified pipeline,” she said.
Predicting Salmonella levels, breast yield
Smart Data Science Solutions is working on the customization of its multi-tier statistical process control (SPC) system for monitoring Salmonella in live operations and processing plants at two poultry companies. Machine learning algorithms update as new data is fed into the SPC system, and this works to better identify emerging problems in a firm-specific framework.
The system can be employed throughout the supply chain for any measurable process a company wants to monitor, but monitoring Salmonella is currently the top application of the system, the company reports.
Recent advances in combining multiple machine learning and statistical algorithms in an ensemble learner have significantly increased the system’s ability to accurately predict Salmonella results. These advances also help to identify breast meat yield two to eight weeks prior to processing.
“This time frame is suitable for producers to implement interventions or dietary changes to the flocks to try to correct risky or under-performing birds. We are in the process of tuning the algorithms to predict other key performance outcomes, such as feed conversion and mortality,” said company founder Tim Buisker.
Poultry transport data shows value
The poultry industry is showing increased readiness to adopt poultry transport data, according to a company that presented the technology at PTS in November. Transport Genie president and CEO Joel Sotomayor reports that the presentation there led to a trial of the system in Switzerland, while sales of the system have increased in recent months.
Transport Genie monitors livestock from farm to their destination with real-time alerts, and they use blockchain technologies to keep an electronic record of activities throughout the transportation value chain.
The company recently won a Canadian Government grant for a two-year project to validate efficacy of wireless monitoring systems and enhance health and welfare assurance during transport. The project, being led by Canadian Animal Health Coalition and partnered with Transport Genie Limited, is funded through the Assurance program of the Canadian Agriculture Partnership, a federal, provincial territorial initiative.
“Validated data from animal transport research will be used to support legislation, best-practices and other protocols. Industry can then focus on retailers and consumers to explain and promote the humane standards that we are achieving within the industry, with the intention of regaining consumer confidence and preserving traditional protein markets,” Sotomayor said.
Poultry Tech Summit 2019
The second Poultry Tech Summit will be held November 20-22, 2019, at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
