Development of Hardware and Mobile Applications Related to Digital Technologies in the Livestock Sector

PROJECT NAME:

Development of Hardware and Mobile Applications Related to Digital Technologies in the Livestock Sector

PROJECT MANAGER:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. İsmail KIRBAŞ
 

PROJECT TOPIC:

The increase in the capacity and speed of computers, internet connection technologies, mobile devices, sensor technology, automation and robotics, drones, imaging satellites, machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), parallel computing, image processing, cloud computing, nanotechnology, and machine-human interaction have resulted in the emergence of a new entrepreneurial field called Industry 4.0. While this new trend is slowly showing itself in industrial products worldwide, Turkey needs to contribute to this new industrial revolution and not fall behind. We see applications of Industry 4.0 in many areas, and it is rapidly being adapted to agriculture and livestock. The continued use of old-fashioned techniques in the agriculture and livestock sector in Turkey makes it even more important to use information technologies more in this field and to catch up with Industry 4.0.
The aim of digital technologies in the livestock sector is to create and stabilize an optimum production function through the automatic and continuous monitoring of animals. Information flow is provided to the producer through key indicators focusing on the health, welfare, productivity, and environmental impact of the animal. With this mission of digital technologies, it is aimed to design a small laboratory on each farm. However, the purpose of digital technologies is to assist the farmer rather than managing the farm completely autonomously.
When hardware or herd information system is mentioned, simple electronic monitoring systems may come to mind, while sometimes fully automatic robotic systems can also be considered. Whether computerized or not, herd information systems and digital technologies have been developed to provide individual management in cattle and sheep enterprises with animal behaviors and data collected from various points. The general expectation from digital technologies or herd management systems is the ability to collect data from the animal automatically and with high reliability. If errors occur in the collected data, the directions given by the system to the farmer will also be erroneous and inconsistent. A correct herd information system should make accurate definitions and measurements. In this way, mastitis, estrus, disease, and live weight measurements are accurately presented to the farmer. The accurate presentation of this information will help maintain high animal condition and health graphs, increase the quality of the products obtained, and ensure the farm operates optimally.
The subject of this project is the accurate collection, storage, and conversion of raw data from enterprises operating in the livestock sector into information. In the phase of developing the planned hardware and embedded software to collect data from the hardware, completing the test and field integration processes, it is planned to work in a closed circuit at MAKÜ Pilot Cattle Farm first, then conduct field tests, and finally complete the necessary infrastructures for widespread dissemination. The scope of the project includes first conducting it at MAKÜ Pilot Cattle Farm, then completing the necessary field studies around Burdur province, and finally disseminating it nationwide.
 

PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

The herd management software available in the market is installed on farms integrated with hardware. These herd management software, which are mandatory in state-supported farm setups, are either underused or not used at all by most users. Herd management software contains very complex areas in terms of usage, making it difficult for the breeder to record and track data. For the breeder to have a more comfortable use in this area, these software need to be able to receive data from all integrated hardware and not create too much workload for individuals. Therefore, developing hardware and user-friendly software that will communicate with these hardware for data recording and tracking in animal breeding has become a significant need. With the hardware to be developed, operations within the farm should be automated as much as possible to reduce the workload. Similarly, the software to be integrated with these hardware should be a software that appeals to all kinds of breeders, does not increase the breeders' daily workload, and informs the breeder about the operation with the results it produces. However, the herd management software available in the market only communicate with their hardware, contain a very complex interface, and make data recording in a way that increases the breeder's workload. As a result of all these handicaps, they only present reports and graphs to users instead of their raw data. The aim of the project is to analyze the real basic needs of a farm by working directly with breeders and expert veterinarians, considering all these handicaps, and to produce a software-hardware duo that can respond to these requests. The goal of the hardware and integrated software to be produced is to answer the breeder's questions instantly, to allow immediate interventions by evaluating the produced reports by expert veterinarians, and to provide ease of use by minimizing the breeder's software learning and data entry workload.
Within the scope of the project, specifically for dairy cattle, it is aimed to develop IoT-based hardware and software for the automatic identification of animals entering the milking area, automatic transfer of milking information of each animal to the database, and real-time monitoring of all data, as well as designing a contactless milk meter. With the designed system, milk yield can be reported and tracked in detail.

Aim 1: Development of an RFID tag reader system for animal identification
Desired Outcome 1: Reading the RFID ear tags of animals with RF antenna and RFID reader card during their entry into the multiple milking room, sending the determined identity information to the system mini-computer, matching the milk meter with the animal identified by the mini-computer according to its order in the milking room, and preparing the necessary software and hardware for these steps

Aim 2: Real-time reading of milking parameters from milk meters
Desired Outcome 2: Reading real-time milking parameters from milk meters for each animal during milking and transferring all information to the database in real-time, and preparing IoT-based software and hardware for displaying the desired information on the system monitor

Aim 3: Creating a database and AI-supported reporting system
Desired Outcome 3: Creating a database for animal identity and milking parameters (milk amount, milking duration, etc.), and sending efficiency reports and alerts to the producer with the AI-supported reporting software to be created

Aim 4: Creating a system monitor, web, and mobile interface for monitoring data
Desired Outcome 4: Creating a system monitor interface by reading the information of animals in the milking room from the database in real-time during milking, creating web and mobile interfaces for accessing all data at any desired time, and creating the relevant software sections for displaying real-time system feedback on all interfaces.

Aim 5: Design of a contactless milk meter
Desired Outcome 5: Developing a contactless milk meter and integrating it into the milking system.
 

REGIONAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE PROJECT:

The economy of Burdur province is largely based on agriculture and livestock, and approximately two-thirds of the population work in these sectors. The economy consists of 40% livestock activities based on milk production and supporting plant production. Burdur has over 200,000 cattle, 98% of which are of cultural breed, and ranks 10th in Turkey with over 1,000 tons of daily milk production. Additionally, sheep and goat breeding has gained importance in Burdur, with over 400,000 small ruminants. Poultry farming is also an important sector. The agricultural sector is developing in connection with livestock, and the agricultural machinery industry has made significant progress in a positive direction.
Considering the potential of the region in agriculture and livestock, the development of local digital technologies can offer significant contributions both for Burdur and the country.

Better Animal Health and Welfare: Digital technologies can be used to monitor the health and welfare of animals. This ensures that animals receive better care and grow healthily. At the same time, this can help animals live a happier and more comfortable life.

Helping Farmers: Digitization offers more information and assistance to farmers. It guides farmers on issues such as data analysis, disease detection, and nutrition tracking. This helps farmers manage their work better and make better decisions.

Less Loss: Digital technologies can diagnose diseases early, reducing animal losses. It ensures that farmers do not suffer more economically.

Sustainability: Digitization promotes environmental sustainability. It ensures more efficient use of resources, water, and energy savings. This helps protect the region's natural resources.

Better Products: Digitization ensures better nutrition and care for animals. This allows for the production of higher quality animal products.

Education and Employment Opportunities: Developing local digital technology helps the region meet its technological needs. This reduces dependence on external sources and creates employment opportunities for local labor. Digitization offers educational opportunities to develop the skills of the workforce in the region. At the same time, it creates new job opportunities.

Local Cooperation and Community: Digitization projects can promote solidarity and cooperation between local businesses, universities, and communities. It can help the region's residents form a stronger community.

In conclusion, the development of local technologies in the field of livestock will result in positive outcomes such as better animal health, helping farmers, sustainability, quality products, educational opportunities, independence, employment, competitiveness, and community solidarity. This will help improve the quality of life in the region. The livestock sector, which provides significant inputs to many sectors and supports national income and rural development, will contribute to maintaining the rural-urban migration balance within the country.
 

SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE PROJECT:

Despite our country's respectable position in cattle breeding, most of the technologies used in livestock are imported from abroad. The technologies to be produced within the scope of the project will offer a local solution in this field and contribute to reducing imports. The technology offered to local producers will be extremely cost-effective and accessible compared to imported ones.
The data tracking systems and software widely used in our country are produced by ENGS Dairy, InterPuls, SCR Dairy, and GEA. The current sales price of the ENGS Dairy system, which can add and remove various functions such as milk yield, estrus tracking, step count, and disease tracking along with identification, ranges between 32,000 and 50,000 Euros for a facility with 150 animals (including identification tags, bracelets, etc.). The InterPuls system for the same number of animals is priced around 48,000 Euros, and the SCR Dairy system is priced around 54,000 Euros. The GEA company does not sell the tracking software separately from the milking system. These systems generally do not work with different brand milking systems. In most cases, expert knowledge is needed to evaluate the data obtained from these systems. There are no environments where producers can easily access and evaluate the data. The systems aimed to be implemented within the scope of the project are targeted to be much more affordable and accessible to even small-scale producers compared to imported ones. The basic functions of the system will include individual milk yield, disease probability tracking, and easy data provision to the producer from mobile-web environments, which are actually seen as the most prominent needs for local milk producers. Additional features such as step count, estrus tracking, etc., can be added later on this initial structure.
According to TUIK data, approximately 10 million tons of cow's milk were produced in our country in 2022. When looking at the recent years' data on the number of milking animals in our country, no official information has been obtained for the situation after 2019. According to TUIK data, nearly 600,000 cows were milked in 2019. As of 2018, there are over 12,000 milking facilities. Again, within 2018, it was stated that only 28% of the milking facilities mechanized with 50% grant support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry used electronic milk meters. Therefore, it is seen that even in facilities established with state support, systems that can track the individual milk yield of animals are present at a low rate. It is obvious that this rate will be much lower for producers who have not received support because the main factor in the lack of the relevant system is cost. Although producers generally have machine milking systems, they cannot access the hardware and software to track the individual yield of animals due to cost. Since individual yield tracking is not done, the maintenance costs of animals that do not provide sufficient milk unnecessarily increase the total cost, and no general health status tracking of animals can be done. Thanks to the automatic data recording system to be implemented within the scope of the project, a low-cost solution will be offered to local milking system manufacturers and farmers for individual yield tracking. Considering that cooperation with local milking system manufacturers is possible, a product with a very high commercialization potential will emerge. Thus, both a contribution to the increase in national milk production efficiency will be made, and a local substitute will be provided against expensive imported systems. The herd management software currently on the market belongs to Israeli, German, and Dutch companies. These software are installed on farms with their hardware and only communicate with their systems. The purchase and maintenance costs of these software, which are mandatory for farms established with state support, are quite high. Therefore, most enterprises either do not use these software and integrated hardware at all or do not use them functionally after a certain period due to hardware failure or deficiency. Thanks to the hardware and integrated software to be developed within the scope of the project, a local herd management system will be introduced. In this way, the technological dependence in the livestock sector will be reduced, and enterprises will have a local and stable system at more affordable prices.