Predicting bird weight is one of the constant challenges facing producers. Fieldale Farms wanted to automate the process of bird weight predictions with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
“There’s quite a lot of misunderstanding about what machine learning can do,” Caroline Forest, vice president, business development and marketing, Intelia Technologies Inc.. “Our customer, Fieldale Farms came to us with a question, and we put machine learning to work to answer that question.”
“Machine learning falls under the artificial intelligence umbrella. Everyone thinks of it as a black box and it’s not,” added Casey Middlebrooks, data analyst and live production coordinator, Fieldale Farms. “Machine learning is just a set of mathematical equations.”
At the 2023 Poultry Tech Summit, Forest and Middlebrooks will explain how the two companies collaborated to develop a broiler weight forecasting tool.
The Poultry Tech Summit, scheduled for November 6-8 at the Hilton Atlanta Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, focuses on the transition of innovative technologies into commercial applications to advance the poultry industry.
Registration for this event is now open. Early bird savings are available.
The challenges of automating bird weight estimates
Many factors can influence broiler weight gain, including many that are outside of human control such as weather and genetics.
“When you’re predicting bird weight, you’re trying to average what 25,000 birds in a house are going to do and there are all types of continuous and categorical data influencing that end result,” Middlebrooks explained, noting that even small differences can make a difference.
Aside from releasing workers from a repetitive task, automating the process means that poultry operations will no longer depend on subjective decisions to make such a critical call, which makes operations more efficient while minimizing disruption.
Fieldale Farms is currently testing a trained predictive model.
“When you have collaboration in place between the supplier and the producer, you’re actually able to achieve a lot and be more accurate more quickly,” Forest said.
Attend the 2023 Poultry Tech Summit
Join an exclusive international gathering of industry-changing innovators, researchers, entrepreneurs, technology experts, investors and leading poultry producers at the 2023 edition of Poultry Tech Summit on November 6-8 at the Hilton Atlanta Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.
Attendees can expect the same groundbreaking innovation and insightful presentations that made the previous events well-attended with deep dialogue on new prospective solutions and next-generation technologies. Poultry Tech Summit focuses on the transition of innovative technologies into commercial applications to advance the poultry industry.
Registration for this event is now open. Early bird savings are available.
