Simulation of precision feeding systems for swine

Abstract

Precision livestock farming has become an inevitable trend for agricultural industry in the world. In that field, precision feeding is widely acknowledged because of its potential to reduce feed costs, environmental footprint and to improve animal health and welfare. Precision feeding involves modern multidisciplinary technologies such as information technology, mechanics, electronics, automation, etc. Such a system consists of automatic troughs linked to a computer system to exploit data collected from the individual animals (e.g. body weight, feed intake and feeding behaviour), and/or from ambient sensors. Data is processed and analysed based on mathematical models to make predictions, warnings for farmers or to formulate diets that fit requirements of each individual animal at each production period. However, implementing such a system often requires high investment, which may go beyond the capabilities of smallholders and small/medium laboratories. Furthermore, the risk of implementing by design but not conforming to reality is very high. To avoid this problem, we introduce an agent-based modelling approach to simulate precision feeding systems for swine. Two simulation experiments were conducted to provide predictions about the growth of individual pigs and the usefulness of precision feeding systems over classic feeding models.