Air pollution and livestock production

The air in a livestock farming environment contains high concentrations of dust particles and gaseous pollutants. The total inhalable dust can enter the nose and mouth during normal breathing and the thoracic dust can reach into the lungs. However, it is the respirable dust particles that can penetrate further into the gas-exchange region, making it the most hazardous dust component. Prolonged exposure to high concentrations of dust particles can lead to respiratory health issues for both livestock and farming staff. Ammonia, an example of a gaseous pollutant, is derived from the decomposition of nitrous compounds. Increased exposure to ammonia may also have an effect on the health of humans and livestock. There are a number of technologies available to ensure exposure to these pollutants is minimised. Through proactive means, (the optimal design and management of livestock buildings) air quality can be improved to reduce the likelihood of risks associated with sub-optimal air quality. Once air problems have taken hold, other reduction methods need to be applied utilising a more reactive approach. A key requirement for the control of concentration and exposure of airborne pollutants to an acceptable level is to be able to conduct real-time measurements of these pollutants. This paper provides a review of airborne pollution including methods to both measure and control the concentration of pollutants in livestock buildings

Feeding behaviour of broiler chickens: a review on the biomechanical characteristics

Feed related costs are the main drivers of profitability of commercial poultry farms, and good nutrition is mainly responsible for the exceptional growth rate responses of current poultry species. So far, most research on the poultry feeding behaviour addresses the productivity indices and birds' physiological responses, but few studies have considered the biomechanical characteristics involved in this process. This paper aims to review biomechanical issues related to feed behaviour of domestic chickens to address some issues related to the feed used in commercial broiler chicken production, considering feed particle size, physical form and the impact of feeders during feeding. It is believed that the biomechanical evaluation might suggest a new way for feed processing to meet the natural feeding behaviour of the birds

European farmers' experiences with precision livestock farming systems

In the public debate about modern animal production methods, the voice of the farmer is rarely heard. Little is known about the daily work and economic pressure the single farmer is exposed to and what he thinks and feels about the increasingly complex production systems with demanding new control and monitoring technologies such as PLF. In a limited survey based on 21 farm visits (nine pig, five broiler, and seven dairy farms) in 10 EU countries, the knowledge of farmers on options and opportunities of precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies in modern animal production systems was investigated. The farmers were asked by personal free-format interviews face to face on their farms. Most pig and poultry farms were visited in 2014, just after the installation of the PLF technology in the farms and 2016 again after 2 yr of experience. The dairy farms could be visited only once in 2016. All farmers who get sufficient support from the providers developed a positive to very positive attitude to the real-time monitoring PLF systems. This applies for pig, broiler, and cow farms. Broiler farmers were more open to PLF than pig farmers. All farmers emphasized with few exceptions that the personal contact to the animals cannot be replaced by video cameras, but the PLF systems can be of great help in daily life. They enable the farmer to recognize problems significantly earlier than with conventional methods. These techniques are not only helpful and animal friendly, they may also assist to bridge the presently existing gap between producers and consumers by transparency of production. Drawbacks are the relative high prices for PLF equipment, sometimes poor maintenance service by the delivering companies, and the lack of broader experience with the systems in practice. Although one farmer responded after 2 yr of experience with his PLF system that he would not miss it anymore and that he understands his animals much better since he uses PLF monitoring, there is an urgent need for more and wider experiences. It is recommended to further test and develop PLF technologies in demonstration farms under practical conditions. It seems that PLF technologies can play an important role in the development of a future-oriented, sustainable, animal-friendly, and efficient livestock production with healthy animals

Uncertainty in the measurement of indoor temperature and humidity in naturally ventilated dairy buildings as influenced by measurement technique and data variability

[EN] The microclimatic conditions in dairy buildings affect animal welfare and gaseous emissions. Measurements are highly variable due to the inhomogeneous distribution of heat and humidity sources (related to farm management) and the turbulent inflow (associated with meteorologic boundary conditions). The selection of the measurement strategy (number and position of the sensors) and the analysis methodology adds to the uncertainty of the applied measurement technique. To assess the suitability of different sensor positions, in situations where monitoring in the direct vicinity of the animals is not possible, we collected long-term data in two naturally ventilated dairy barns in Germany between March 2015 and April 2016 (horizontal and vertical profiles with 10 to 5 min temporal resolution). Uncertainties related to the measurement setup were assessed by comparing the device outputs under lab conditions after the on-farm experiments. We found out that the uncertainty in measurements of relative humidity is of particular importance when assessing heat stress risk and resulting economic losses in terms of temperature-humidity index. Measurements at a height of approximately 3 m-3.5 m turned out to be a good approximation for the microclimatic conditions in the animal occupied zone (including the air volume close to the emission active zone). However, further investigation along this cross-section is required to reduce uncertainties related to the inhomogeneous distribution of humidity. In addition, a regular sound cleaning (and if possible recalibration after few months) of the measurement devices is crucial to reduce the instrumentation uncertainty in long-term monitoring of relative humidity in dairy barns (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAgrE.The work was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) through the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), grant number 2814ERA02C.Hempel, S.; König, M.; Menz, C.; Janke, D.; Amon, B.; Banhazi, T.; Estellés, F.... (2018). Uncertainty in the measurement of indoor temperature and humidity in naturally ventilated dairy buildings as influenced by measurement technique and data variability. Biosystems Engineering. 166:58-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2017.11.004S587516

Construction and validation of a low-cost system for indoor air quality measurements in livestock facilities

In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for food of ani-mal origin. The number of intensive production systems such as pig and poultry farming has been increasing more and more and exerting great impacts on the environment, due to a large amount of particulate material and gaseous pollutants that are generated within these facilities. Thus, low-cost devices emerge as a cheap alternative that provides farmers with information on indoor air quality in its facilities. However, it is important that these devices make precise and accu-rate measurements, providing reliable concentration readings. Therefore, the ob-jective of this study is the construction and validation of a low-cost system capa-ble of measuring, storing and sending, via the mobile network, the concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon dioxide, PM2.5, PM10, temperature, and relative humidity. Preliminary inter-comparison tests showed that the built sys-tem had a reliable behavior in relation to all variables, even though the CO2 sen-sor was the one with the highest determination coefficient. The built device is able to provide continuous monitoring of atmospheric pollutants concentrations, at low cost and with simple handling.This study was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under the PT2020 Program through financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013) and by the bilateral project established between the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal) and the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (Brazil).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Recording behaviour of indoor-housed farm animals automatically using machine vision technology: a systematic review

Large-scale phenotyping of animal behaviour traits is time consuming and has led to increased demand for technologies that can automate these procedures. Automated tracking of animals has been successful in controlled laboratory settings, but recording from animals in large groups in highly variable farm settings presents challenges. The aim of this review is to provide a systematic overview of the advances that have occurred in automated, high throughput image detection of farm animal behavioural traits with welfare and production implications. Peer-reviewed publications written in English were reviewed systematically following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. After identification, screening, and assessment for eligibility, 108 publications met these specifications and were included for qualitative synthesis. Data collected from the papers included camera specifications, housing conditions, group size, algorithm details, procedures, and results. Most studies utilized standard digital colour video cameras for data collection, with increasing use of 3D cameras in papers published after 2013. Papers including pigs (across production stages) were the most common (n = 63). The most common behaviours recorded included activity level, area occupancy, aggression, gait scores, resource use, and posture. Our review revealed many overlaps in methods applied to analysing behaviour, and most studies started from scratch instead of building upon previous work. Training and validation sample sizes were generally small (mean±s.d. groups = 3.8±5.8) and in data collection and testing took place in relatively controlled environments. To advance our ability to automatically phenotype behaviour, future research should build upon existing knowledge and validate technology under commercial settings and publications should explicitly describe recording conditions in detail to allow studies to be reproduced

Spatial, diurnal and seasonal variations in the levels of environmental parameters in Australian livestock buildings

In order to identify the most suitable, practical and representative sampling sites to undertake reliable air quality and environmental assessments in intensive piggery buildings, the spatial, diurnal and seasonal variations observed in the concentrations of major airborne pollutants (including ammonia, carbon dioxide, and airborne particles) and related environmental parameters (such as airspeed, temperature and humidity) were investigated. Air quality parameters were recorded in a number of piggery buildings over a 2.5-day period. The air quality monitoring equipment used included cyclone attachments to measure particles of less than 5 microns and an SHS (Seven Hole Samplers) attachment to measure inhalable airborne particles, attached to air pumps operated at 1.9 and 2.0 L/min respectively. Ammonia and carbon dioxide were monitored using a Multi-gas Gas Monitoring Machine (MGM) for a number of days on each monitoring occasion. The concentrations of airborne particles were also measured using Osiris optical particle counter (Turnkey technologies, UK) and airspeed were measured using a hot-wired anemometer (Alnor Instruments, Shoreview, Minn.). Interesting patterns in the concentration of carbon dioxide, dust and ammonia were observed over time and space. Carbon dioxide, airspeed and dust concentration demonstrated an obvious circadian pattern. The difference in the concentrations ammonia and carbon dioxide between different sampling sites in the same building was not statistically significant. However, the concentration of inhalable particles was not uniform throughout the buildings and proved to be higher above the walkways when using gravimetric measurements. Ammonia and respirable particle concentrations were significantly higher in summer when compared to winter conditions. The results combined give us a clear picture of the most appropriate sampling times and sampling places for appropriate evaluation of air quality in intensive livestock buildings

Review of methods to determine weight, size and composition of livestock from images

The currently available technologies which can determine the weight of livestock are reviewed and limitations of the weighing task by these means are defined. Comparisons between the different techniques highlight the superiority of the non-contact vision based method. Modelling techniques for weight estimation size and composition are reviewed along with image segmentation and recognition methods. Conclusions identify that more work is required on further minimising the error of group average daily weight estimates, individual animal weight estimates, group weight deviation and enhancing the design of the weighing apparatus to function in a commercially realistic environments. Future direction also centres on enhancing automation, minimising invasive environmental control, maximising precision and repeatability during dimension recovery and identifying and controlling the effect of any bias in weight estimation