Digital management of large-scale production of slaughter turkeys

There are simple digital tools on the market that support poultry production (Jotofan, Hotraco, Skov, ViperTouch, Fermo, CTI Control Hogslot, Elkom, Stienen). They have functions such as control of: temperature, feed and water supply, ventilation, monitoring of: gases (CO2, NH3), feed and water consumption, bird body weight. They also enable counting dead animals and generate alarms. Therefore, these systems are mainly useful in the mechanical operation of the livestock building in which the system is installed. In the current state of technology, the analysis of the obtained data, diagnosing problems and developing the best solutions requires the involvement of a number of people who use different tools and must communicate on an ongoing basis. In addition, someone must coordinate the acquisition of information and the activities of a team of people so that the result of their work is a diagnosis. Human communication and the involvement of individual team members are of key importance, as they have a direct impact on the correct collection of data, its analysis and continuous decision-making on many issues that are extremely important in the course of meat production (such as setting optimal environmental parameters, applying the appropriate treatment method, etc.). Another weak point of this organization is the subjectivity that individual team members are naturally guided by.
Such organization of meat production management creates a risk of incorrect diagnoses, setting inappropriate environmental parameters or using inappropriate and perhaps sometimes unnecessary treatment (including the use of drugs). The applicant intends to develop and implement an innovation that will significantly improve the technology used today - an innovative digital tool, based on automatic and objective collection, processing and analysis of data, as well as on multi-component self-learning algorithms with elements of artificial intelligence in an organized management center.

The aim of the operation is to implement a significantly improved technology in the form of a digital tool enabling fast and accurate management of the production of high-quality turkey meat, based on constantly collected objective data from selected facilities in terms of environmental parameters in the facilities, such as: water and feed consumption and animal health. The aim of the operation is also to implement a new method of organizing production through the use of improved technology. The main task of the operation will be to create a digital tool, its appropriate programming. The new method of organization will enable quick response of production managers based on current information obtained thanks to the tool. The implementation of improved technology and new organization is also aimed at preventing crisis situations in turkey production caused by too late response of service. The implementation of the project will provide objective input data, enabling accurate management of turkey production, and will enable quick and objective evaluation of previous activities and implementation of best practices in the future in order to optimize the production process.

Project activities

The operation related to the DigitalFarmManagement project carried out among farmers producing turkey meat associated with the Poultry Producers Group will be carried out in 4 counties: Śrem, Kościan, Poznań and Grodzisk, Wielkopolska Province. Previously, the operation was to be divided into three stages, but now, due to the short project implementation time, we have combined stage I with stage II into one and therefore we have only two stages of project implementation, which, in accordance with the regulation of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of October 7, 2024, we will implement until April 30, 2025.

1. In the first stage, we will develop and select indicator parameters in turkey production; transmitters and receivers enabling sending and receiving digital data will be installed on nine farms. Equipping all production facilities located on farms with unified sets of monitoring sensors and computer collective units. At this stage, a computer program will be developed that collects, analyzes and manages DigitalFarmManagement as a tool enabling objective decision-making by a qualified team of professionals gathered around the created 
2. At the second stage, the production facility management center and the management team will constantly cooperate with scientific partners in quarterly consultations on the results achieved and the accompanying parameters to determine guidelines for subsequent periods for continuous improvement of the obtained production parameters and increase in the safety of the conducted production. Analyses and comparisons with the results of the latest scientific research from around the world monitored by publications will allow for continuous improvement and development. At the second stage, qualitative tests of the obtained turkey meat will also be implemented, the research will be continued until the end of the project in order to learn about the impact of improving the overall management of the turkey production thanks to DigitalFarmManagement on the quality parameters of the finally obtained turkey meat. Indicating the impact of modern digital tools for managing multi-facility turkey production on the efficiency, quality and safety of the produced turkey meat will allow for significant qualitative progress in the production conducted.

The main benefits of the project

The result of the operation will be a new organization of meat production management using significantly improved technology in the form of a digital tool enabling fast and accurate production management. Thanks to the new management organization, it will be possible, among other things, to collect data necessary for management will be: coordinated, unified, automatic, continuous and objective. An integrated database of extremely important data will be created, which will be automatically and continuously analyzed, which will enable, among other things, an objective diagnosis of undesirable factors occurring during production as well as an assessment of previous actions and implementation of best practices in the future. The person making decisions during production will receive objective diagnoses and proposals for comprehensive and optimal solutions, ready for immediate implementation, which will enable a quick response based on current information. Implementation of solutions after making a decision will be immediate and largely automatic, which will result in, among other things, preventing crisis situations in the turkey meat production process. In addition, the production manager will have full information on all parameters and events occurring during a given production cycle. Another outcome of the operation will be a positive impact on animals in production and the production of a significantly improved turkey meat product.

Practice summary

The effect of the operation will be a new organization of meat production management using a system - a digital tool enabling fast and accurate production management. The system will enable, among other things, collecting data necessary for management. Management will be coordinated, unified, automatic, continuous and objective. An integrated database will be created, which will be automatically and continuously analyzed. The analysis will allow for an objective diagnosis of undesirable factors occurring during production, as well as for the evaluation of previous activities and implementation of best practices in the future. The person making decisions during production will receive objective diagnoses and proposals for comprehensive and optimal solutions, ready for immediate implementation. Implementation of solutions after making a decision will be immediate and largely automatic, which will result in, among other things, preventing crisis situations in the turkey meat production process. In addition, the production manager will have full information on all parameters and events occurring during a given production cycle.
Another result of the operation will be a positive impact on animals during production (improved animal welfare, creation of an optimal breeding environment) and production of a significantly improved product in the form of turkey meat. Meat production using the system will be more ecological and economical, thanks to the optimization of the use of energy, feed, medicines and other means necessary for production, which will lead to the production of much better quality meat. Thanks to the functionality of the system, the amount of medicines, including antibiotics, used in production will be reduced, which will translate into a reduced risk of cross-resistance in humans.

Results achieved

The aim of the operation was to implement a significantly improved technology in the form of a digital tool enabling fast and accurate management of the production of high-quality turkey meat, based on constantly collected objective data from selected facilities in terms of environmental parameters in the facilities, such as: water and feed consumption and animal health. The aim of the operation was also to implement a new method of organizing production thanks to the use of improved technology. In addition, the main task of the operation was to create a digital tool and program it accordingly. The new method of organization enabled quick reaction of people managing production based on current information obtained thanks to the DigitalFarmManagement application. The implemented application made it possible to prevent crisis situations in turkey production caused by too late reaction of the service. The implemented application provided objective input data, enabling accurate management of Turkey production, and enabled quick and objective evaluation of previous activities and implementation of best practices in order to optimize the production process. The measurable effect of the operation is higher turkey production results and post-slaughter parameters obtained as a result of the new organization method - herd management using the DigitalFarmManagemet.

The result of the operation is a new organization of meat production management using a significantly improved technology in the form of a digital tool (DigitalFarmManagement application) enabling fast and accurate production management. Thanks to the new management organization, it is possible, among other things, to collect data necessary for management has been: coordinated, unified, automatic, continuous and objective. An integrated database of extremely important data was created, which is automatically and continuously analyzed, enabling, among other things, an objective diagnosis of undesirable factors occurring during production as well as an assessment of previous actions and implementation of best practices. The person making decisions during production receives objective diagnoses and proposals for comprehensive and optimal solutions, ready for immediate implementation, which allows for a quick response based on current information. Implementation is immediate and largely automatic, which results in, among other things, preventing crisis situations in the turkey meat production process. In addition, the production manager has full information on all parameters and events occurring during a given production cycle. Another result of the operation is a positive impact on the animals in production and the production of a significantly improved product in the form of turkey meat.

Additional comments

The implementation of the obtained result will be facilitated by the data collected during the implementation. Obstacles in the implementation of the project may be mainly technical in nature (failures of components, failures of media supplies). The components used to build the system enable its development, creation of subsequent versions. Future activities should aim to increase the catalog of information that the system analyzes, increase the number of places for downloading data and - on this basis - expand the functions of the system.