Towards a Vectorial Approach to Predict Beef Farm Performance

Abbona, F., Vanneschi, L., & Giacobini, M. (2022). Towards a Vectorial Approach to Predict Beef Farm Performance. Applied Sciences, 12(3), 1-16. [1137]. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12031137 ------------------------------------ Funding: This work was partially supported by FCT, Portugal, through funding of projects BINDER (PTDC/CCI-INF/29168/2017) and AICE (DSAIPA/DS/0113/2019).Accurate livestock management can be achieved by means of predictive models. Critical factors affecting the welfare of intensive beef cattle husbandry systems can be difficult to be detected, and Machine Learning appears as a promising approach to investigate the hundreds of variables and temporal patterns lying in the data. In this article, we explore the use of Genetic Programming (GP) to build a predictive model for the performance of Piemontese beef cattle farms. In particular, we investigate the use of vectorial GP, a recently developed variant of GP, that is particularly suitable to manage data in a vectorial form. The experiments conducted on the data from 2014 to 2018 confirm that vectorial GP can outperform not only the standard version of GP but also a number of state-of-the-art Machine Learning methods, such as k-Nearest Neighbors, Generalized Linear Models, feed-forward Neural Networks, and long- and short-term memory Recurrent Neural Networks, both in terms of accuracy and generalizability. Moreover, the intrinsic ability of GP in performing an automatic feature selection, while generating interpretable predictive models, allows highlighting the main elements influencing the breeding performance.publishersversionpublishe

A GP approach for precision farming

Abbona, F., Vanneschi, L., Bona, M., & Giacobini, M. (2020). A GP approach for precision farming. In 2020 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC : 2020 Conference Proceedings (pp. 1-8). [9185637] (2020 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation, CEC 2020 - Conference Proceedings). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/CEC48606.2020.9185637Livestock is increasingly treated not just as food containers, but as animals that can be susceptible to stress and diseases, affecting, therefore, the production of offspring and the performance of the farm. The breeder needs a simple and useful tool to make the best decisions for his farm, as well as being able to objectively check whether the choices and investments made have improved or worsened its performance. The amount of data is huge but often dispersive: it is therefore essential to provide the farmer with a clear and comprehensible solution, that represents an additional investment. This research proposes a genetic programming approach to predict the yearly number of weaned calves per cow of a farm, namely the measure of its performance. To investigate the efficiency of genetic programming in such a problem, a dataset composed by observations on representative Piedmontese breedings was used. The results show that the algorithm is appropriate, and can perform an implicit feature selection, highlighting important variables and leading to simple and interpretable models.authorsversionpublishe

Towards modelling beef cattle management with Genetic Programming

Abbona, F., Vanneschi, L., Bona, M., & Giacobini, M. (2020). Towards modelling beef cattle management with Genetic Programming. Livestock Science, 241, 1-12. [104205]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2020.104205Among the Italian Piemontese Beef Breedings, the yearly production of calves weaned per cow, that is the calves that survive during the period of 60 days following birth, is identified as the main target expressing the performance of a farm. modeling farm dynamics in order to predict the value of this parameter is a possible solution to investigate and highlight breeding strengths, and to find alternatives to penalizing factors. The identification of such variables is a complex but solvable task, since the amount of recorded data among livestock is nowadays huge and manageable through Machine Learning techniques. Besides, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the type of management allows the breeder to consolidate the ongoing processes or, on the contrary, to adopt new management strategies. To solve this problem, we propose a Genetic Programming approach, a white-box technique suitable for big data management, and with an intrinsic ability to select important variables, providing simple models. The most frequent variables encapsulated in the models built by Genetic Programming are highlighted, and their zoological significance is investigated a posteriori, evaluating the performance of the prediction models. Moreover, two of the final expressions selected only three variables among the 48 given in input, one of which is the best performing among GP models. The expressions were then analyzed in order to propose a zootechnical interpretation of the equations. Comparisons with other common techniques, including also black-box methods, are performed, in order to evaluate the performance of different type of methods in terms of accuracy and generalization ability. The approach entailed constructive and helpful considerations to the addressed task, confirming its key-role in the zootechnical field, especially in the beef breeding management.authorsversionpublishe

Dal bilancio sociale 2005 ai progetti per il futuro

Il Bilancio sociale è uno strumento adottato dalle amministrazioni pubbliche per rendere note, in modo chiaro e sintetico, le scelte fatte, le azioni realizzate, le risorse impiegate e i risultati ottenuti. Attraverso Il Bilancio sociale l'Ente Parco si prefigge, soprattutto, di fornire i dati sui i caratteri geografici dell'area, presentare la gestione dell'area protetta e acquisire un nuovo modello di rendicontazione che permetta di costruire un quadro completo sulle iniziative e le attività svolt

Towards a Vectorial Approach to Predict Beef Farm Performance

Accurate livestock management can be achieved by means of predictive models. Critical factors affecting the welfare of intensive beef cattle husbandry systems can be difficult to be detected, and Machine Learning appears as a promising approach to investigate the hundreds of variables and temporal patterns lying in the data. In this article, we explore the use of Genetic Programming (GP) to build a predictive model for the performance of Piemontese beef cattle farms. In particular, we investigate the use of vectorial GP, a recently developed variant of GP, that is particularly suitable to manage data in a vectorial form. The experiments conducted on the data from 2014 to 2018 confirm that vectorial GP can outperform not only the standard version of GP but also a number of state-of-the-art Machine Learning methods, such as k-Nearest Neighbors, Generalized Linear Models, feed-forward Neural Networks, and long- and short-term memory Recurrent Neural Networks, both in terms of accuracy and generalizability. Moreover, the intrinsic ability of GP in performing an automatic feature selection, while generating interpretable predictive models, allows highlighting the main elements influencing the breeding performance