Award details

Poultry Livestock Sensory System (PouLSS)

Reference	BB/N010361/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Lucy Asher
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Newcastle University
Department	Institute of Neuroscience
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	347,258
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/08/2015
End date	31/07/2018
Duration	36 months

Abstract

Raising poultry for meat is a large industry which is highly regulated by government and quality assurance bodies, due to consumer concerns about animal welfare and health and safety of meat products. To help farmers meet such regulations a consortium has designed a product to monitor the welfare of chickens and the environmental conditions of barns in which they are housed. The consortium aims to turn the design of this all-in-one environmental and welfare monitoring system into a tried and tested product. The product will help farmers more closely monitor and respond to changes in chickens' environment or welfare. It will improve existing legal and quality assurance requirements by providing real-time monitoring and will provide up-to-date advice to farmers on how they can create better more productive environments for their chickens. This innovative product will help farmers to more easily comply with regulations, whilst improving welfare and maintaining a healthy profit.

Summary

The aim is to create an all-in-one environmental indicator and animal welfare monitoring sensory system. It will transmit data in a wireless way and will provide early warnings for compromised welfare with recommended actions and will mitigate productivity losses. The implementation of the sensor will augment existing legislative and Industry Assurance requirements; providing real-time animal welfare monitoring it will create greater levels of Assurance to the consumer through Certification. This innovative product is a solution in direct response to growing consumer concerns about animal welfare and consequent health and safety of meat products, which has resulted in increasing regulations affecting poultry production livestock rearing conditions. Producers to now have to balance meeting regulations with increasing production demands, whilst maintaining a healthy profit.

Impact Summary

The project addresses the clear business opportunity of animal welfare (AW) and environmental paramater (EP) poultry precision livestock farming (PLF), providing producers with solutions to minimise losses (Cokery et al., 2013). Translating successful scientific studies in thermography, video image analysis and vocalisation into robust commercial products will benefit producers, consumers and industry. 70% of consumers are concerned with AW (BBFAW, 2012); 80% of ethical consumers are willing to pay more for certification. Hartman Group (2012) predicts increasing AW Certified product sales. Project industry data shall enable 'smart supply chains' causing better assurance compliance rates whilst reducing the 'paper cost' and resulting environmental impact of producing food (Wagner et al., 2002; SITPRO 2008). The global agricultural sensor market, shall reach $1.46 billion by 2018 with the growth of the Internet of Things and increased welfare, health and disease legislation (Markets and Markets, 2011). UK public fund investment would enable gains in this market, where Germany, the US and Asia are leaders. The current market opportunity for the final products sales is £384m (6 sensors ea@£200 p/barn-barns calculated from:FAO STAT, 2014). Pressure groups (WP8) and consortium members shall establish global distributor routes. Initial trial sales will begin 3 months prior project completion in the UK. Further hardware sales will occur in: UK year 1 (£500k),EU expansion year 2 (£1.3m), Australia & US expansion Year 3 (£2.6mill),worldwide expansion year 4 (£4.8mill). Year 2 (post project) sales will be further enhanced with software, Assurance Certification and Licencing models. Expansion from poultry to all livestock shall be investigated. This and GGL's go to market strategy across its expanding global distributor base shall be fuly funded by GGL, and supported by all other consortium members.The project will result in a minimum of 25 new employment opportunities across all partners, and opportunities for multiple patent applications. The primary beneficiaries and users of this research are commercial poultry producers and those involved with this supply chain. By testing the technology in an existing farm which has strong links with J.Sainburys, there is already a clear link to the complete supply chain. The economic impact would be passed on to those who used the sensor developed as it would allow earlier detection and therefore intervention of welfare issues which also translate to increased productivity. Economic losses in IPPU would be abated as early stress within poultry flocks would be detected and responded to. A sensor system will reduce wastage associated with commercial poultry production by enabling poultry producers and retailers to respond to productivity reductions and wastage. A more efficient system which loses fewer chickens to pre-slaughter mortality reasons would mean fewer animals are needed, which, in addition to having inherent positive ethical value, could also assist with reducing CO2 emissions from IPPUs. There would be a benefit to retailers and to wider society to allow better monitoring of chicken welfare and to better provide for consumer led choices to purchase high welfare poultry products. Through enabling retailer awareness of animal welfare standards within producer barns, high end value retailers are able to, not only communicate these results confidently to consumers, but also make knowledgeable choices about which producers to use. This shall further increase the opportunity for farmers to respond to animal welfare standards within their production barns as retailers are able to knowledgeably choose their producers based on these standards. The UoN is a leading academic institution within the Agri-food industry and this actively attracts UK and overseas students. Involvement in this high profile project will further promote capability, which will support student recruitment.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Welfare
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Agri-Tech Catalyst (ATC) [2013-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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