• Eggbase • Porphyrio® • Aniprev
By Teun van de Braak - Product Manager of Hendrix Genetics Layers
In this chapter:
A poultry farm generates a lot of data, day in day out. Daily feed intake, growth, egg production, are just few of the data being recorded on the farm. This data can be of great value to your management, as it tells you a lot. But managing this data can be a challenge, as it is different compared to managing your flock. In large parts of the world data is still collected by making use of pen and paper, or also (too) often seen, not recording the data at all. We have developed an application (PRIMA) in which most of the day-to-day data generated at the poultry farm can be stored easily on your mobile phone. This structured way of data collection, and data visualization allows you to be 24/7 in control of your flock(s).
It is preferred to collect data daily in a structured way and enter that data in the flock management solution on the same day that it is being collected. This will allow you to better understand what is going on in the poultry house at this moment. When you collect data on a weekly basis, you are always running behind the facts. From the human perspective, 1 week does not seem so to be so long, but from the birds’ perspective it is a significant time, especially when you rear laying hens or keep broilers. When data is collected in a standardized and structured way, it is easier for the egg producer and the technical experts to understand the actual situation at the farm.
The PRIMA application allows you to be 24/7 in control of your flock(s). The big benefit is that you do not need a connection to use the application as data can be entered and stored offline. Also, you can make use of the remote access functionality, you can easily share your flock with other poultry farmers and poultry farming experts. This can assist them in helping your flock from a distance and they can verify that your flock is doing well in terms of health and productivity. This digital data sharing functionality of PRIMA can help you to steer in time and save money through the entire production cycle. Most flock management tools will help you to visualize the data with graphs and tables plotted against the breed standard. Visualization will help to better understand how your flock is performing and responding to your management. A warning pops up if unexpected drops in egg production or feed consumption occur, but also when mortality is increased. PRIMA offers timely insight into what is happening with your flock.
The benefit of using PRIMA (or any other flock management solution) is that your data is stored in a structured way, allowing to compare easily between flocks/houses. Data is getting more substantial, but never forget the biological understanding of this data. Chickens are living creatures, and you must observe the flock’s behavior daily, as not all information that your flock is telling you can be captured in data. It is the combination of data visualization and capturing the signals from your flock with your own eyes that can help you to steer your flock in time, which will help to improve the results of your farm.
Tip: we have made easy video tutorials on how to use the PRIMA application, check them out!
PRIMA is available for download in both iOS and Android device.
Are you no yet ready to use mobile apps? Contact your area or sales manager to ask for handy and easy to use excel-sheets for your breed(s) of interest. Next to our own still rather basic PRIMA application, more extensive poultry management solutions are available to the global egg and poultry sector. These solutions come in various forms, target various user audiences (from breeders to egg-packers and veterinarians), and various species (almost any feathered farm animal). We have asked several suppliers of these data management solutions to share their insights on data collection and how their poultry management solutions can contribute towards improved data insight and better flock results. Explore Eggbase, Porhyrio and Aniprev.
By Anne Fleck - Managing Director at Eggbase Ltd
Based in the UK, an innovative poultry software platform is improving efficiency across the world, including UK, Ireland, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia and Africa and it has recently been installed by Hendrix Genetics’ Layers distributor in the UK, Joice and Hill.
Eggbase (see here) were the first company in the UK to take advantage of the cloud to facilitate the centralisation and permissioned sharing of data across the egg and poultry industry for benchmarking and modelling. They now have a unique understanding of the intricacies and digital needs of the egg laying, egg packing and pullet rearing sector.
Their layer and poultry software is designed with the goal of making remote data collection and data analysis accessible to the entire egg and poultry supply chain from hatchery to packer to retailer. The objective was to increase productivity, improve animal health, monitor environmental living conditions, whilst simultaneously improving profitability, resilience and sustainability of the egg sector. Modules include a carbon footprint tool (see here), process controller and IoT sensor compatibility for real-time data entry and Eggbase Assure (see here), a customised document management system for stress-free audits and regulatory compliance that stores farm documents in one place and makes them remotely accessible to stakeholders. Users can also customise Eggbase to their specific requirements and access bespoke graphical representations to easily interpret complex data.
Paula Jordan of Greenfield Foods, who manage 1.4 million birds on 74 locally owned farms in 100 houses across Ireland, was an early adopter of Eggbase software: “We haven’t looked back since we began using the platform in 2011. It Improves efficiency and transparency, saves time and costs, and increases control of producer packing and traceability”, she says. “The system is easy to use, it integrates seamlessly with our Moba egg grader, self-generating farm billing. Our producers can see their flocks on the web, where they get graphs of egg size and comparisons to breed standards. As an added bonus, Anne and her team are lovely to deal with and we recommended them to Ready Egg in Northern Ireland.”
The collection of daily flock and medical data through iOS and Android apps, tablets or laptops and the analysis of this data using a flexible data analytics web platform allows pullet rearers and producers (see here), packers (see here) , feed suppliers (see here) and vets (see here) to record, monitor, aggregate, correlate and benchmark production and output data such as egg numbers, egg quality and grading results.
Hannah Steenson of The Nest Box Egg Company Ltd in Co. Monaghan had this to say about the software: “We originally used the software as a flock management tool to predict egg size. In 2016, we started to use it as a grade tool. Before we adopted this method, all grades were entered manually but now can be done with a few clicks! We do it all in half a day, where previously it took 10 days, which is a massive time saving. Anne has been excellent at helping customise and develop the software specifically for our needs.”
Benchmarking provides remote transparency across multiple poultry farms and flocks and helps in the understanding of how a flock is performing and responding to management interventions. It enables peer and field officer support with real-time visualisations of both physical and financial poultry flock data across current and historical flocks. Comparative data from the field helps breeders (see here) adjust their genetic breeding programmes. Pharmaceutical companies, researchers and equipment manufacturers (see here) can all benefit from on-the-ground data collection to help with innovation. Erik Pettersson of Stjärnägg in Sweden said, “Put simply, we save 3 days a week in administration by using this approach.”
The unique Eggbase carbon footprint tool (see here) is fully integrated for easy data collection and the carbon footprint methodology is embedded into the Eggbase software, enabling the calculation of a full carbon footprint for individual pullet, egg layer and broiler flocks. Model flocks for net zero scenario planning can also be created. It has been four years in development and Eggbase has recently taken on a Law & Environment Masters graduate to head up client support in this area.
The integration of carbon footprint calculations allows for easy remote collection of emissions and sequestration carbon footprint data by packers, retailers, feed suppliers or breeders to inform their own mandatory Scope 3 carbon emissions.
Tom Willings of Stonegate Farmers, who pack eggs for Waitrose and Marks and Spencer, says, “We use Eggbase to benchmark flock performance, to aid our field support teams and monitor flock health. All Stonegate producers use Eggbase and therefore, by inference, our customers are all working with the Eggbase carbon calculation tool.”
For information about Eggbase, please contact us via Eggbase website or anne@eggbase.co.uk (Anne Fleck, Managing Director, Eggbase Ltd).
By Kristof Mertens - Global Business Development Porphyrio® at Evonik PLF
Digitalization is the next stage of optimization – How Big Data, biostatistics and smart algorithms can help you increase efficiency and profitability in egg production
Precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies from sensors to Big Data can help farmers improve productivity and decrease costs, while at the same time reducing their environmental footprint. Ultimately, moving to the next stage of optimization within the boundaries of sustainable production requires an even better understanding of the needs of the individual animal, along with a further integrated approach to farm management.
At Evonik PLF we believe that digital technologies – ICT technologies like the cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data – combined with animal science and biostatistics will enable the industry to get a much better grip on livestock production and gain an unprecedented in-depth knowledge of what really happens on a farm. One major part of PLF is the continuous collection and monitoring of a wide variety of farm data from feed to health. On the basis of this data, farmers can make better-informed decisions earlier in the process and create optimal living conditions for the animals. This leads to improved results on key performance indicators such as yield, animal health and welfare, technical performance, environmental impact, and – last but not least – financial performance. Following an animal-centric approach, Porphyrio® supports your poultry production management using Big Data, biostatistics and scientific self-learning algorithms. A variety of customizable software solutions improves poultry production and product quality through holistic monitoring of parameters that matter and a smart early warning system which notifies users of arising problems. Porphyrio® optimizes planning based on accurate predictions and enables the right decisions to be taken, at the right time, to maximize return on investment.
Porphyrio® adopts a three-step approach to enable optimized poultry production along the complete production chain: monitor daily production, predict performance of your flocks and plan your egg production. The dashboard is completely customizable to your company’s needs, giving insight into, and control over, your processes. Cloud-based self-learning algorithms predict the outcome of livestock farming, taking into account all crucial elements of production: feed, climate, health, welfare, and many more parameters. Our expertise is firmly rooted in animal science and biostatistics. In combination with the latest advancements in Big Data technology, Porphyrio® represents safety, reliability, and accuracy. Whether your company is an individual farm or a vertically integrated egg producer, the modular and functional flexibility of our systems enables us to find the best solution for you.
Moreover, Porphyrio® can assist any stakeholder along the production chain in taking the right decisions at the right time. For instance, a veterinarian can plan and keep track of vaccinations, treatments or feed additives applied to the animals. In combination with the non-invasive test kit ScreenFloX®, another Evonik PLF solution, it is even possible to monitor relevant pathogenic germs in the flock. A farm manager can use the interactive Benchmark Module to compare the performance of his flocks internally, and even with the market. Overall, Porphyrio® embraces your company’s digitalization strategy to improve efficiency and increase profitability of your operation.
Porphyrio® is the digital pillar of Evonik’s PLF system house which combines science, expert knowledge, intelligent software and connectivity into a comprehensive solution for poultry production, with a focus on animal nutrition, animal health and animal farming.
Would you like to know how to achieve actionable insights and better results using Porphyrio®? Contact us via Porphyrio® website or porphyrio-info@evonik.com.
By Pierre Lanckriet - General Manager at Aniprev
Founded in 2015, present in 41 countries, and available in 8 different languages through several thousand users. Users are individual farmers as well as companies connected to large numbers of farmers (like feed companies).
Aniprev is an online farm tool available for various poultry species, where flock data can be registered. The data can be entered manually and offline. Data can be registered through the Aniprev scale, air sensors or directly to the farm computer. A completely new version will be launched in the Fall of 2021 to meet the growing demands of our customers, including (but not only) an easy way to connect Aniprev with farm computers and the various languages.
Aniprev was designed to answer the needs of Farmers who must perform in an increasing complicated farming environment. There are 3 types of users, the farmers, the technician and the administrator. To ease the work an app was designed for the farmers and the technicians who most of the time have several sites to monitor. The data can be entered daily, per double day (useful after a weekend) or per period. The phone application can be used to easily enter the data and to have a quick overview of the main farm parameters through visuals and tables. More in-depth insight is accessible via the web application. The administrator, who has only access via the web app, can easily focus on statistics and quality.
The user is in full control of the data, which can be easily shared with technical supports, like feed companies or the veterinarian. Once data-sharing is activated, the flock data becomes available to all followers. If there seems to be a data issue or if an event (like hygiene monitoring) was not performed an email-notification will be sent to the farmers and the technicians. It is also possible to add photos or videos to notes to have a better understanding of the situation.
Aniprev can adapt itself and allows you to choose your own criteria’s and set your own standards. Aniprev provides full insight during the rearing period, allowing you to know your flock, the % mortality you faced, the feed conversion ratio, the numbers sold and the average age. At the egg farm you can label your egg criteria, connect Aniprev with your egg packer, the number of eggs per hen housed. You can calculate your remuneration daily to see the efficiency of a new feed formula and to compare the gross margin of each flock. Aniprev allows the farmer to compare himself with other producers in the region.
To sum up, Aniprev allows the farmer to be linked with his partners to have all the information needed in two or three clicks. It does not require extra labor and makes life easier. To improve the performances of the farmers the extra pair of eyes of technical support can help. Quick access to the data is required to allow them to provide better support. Aniprev provides a very great overview of all the flocks through an easy-to-use dashboard, where pictograms and colored arrows show an improvement or a decrease in the parameter.
The followers have also access to the agenda with all scheduled actions of the farmers. If the action was performed a check mark appears. Poultry veterinarians can add their prescriptions to the system and to the farmers agenda, so a reminder pops-up.
The administrator has the full overview of a group of producers. The administrator can give access to Aniprev, specify the feed formulas, create the production standards and prepare the list of documents required. The administrator has full access to the statistics of the different flocks within the group, can benchmark and compare between breeds, feed formulas, and treatments.
For further details, please contact us via Aniprev website or contact@aniprev.com.
