WO2016122293A1 - System for the evolutionary prediction of individual growth in cattle - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a novel system for monitoring the individual consumption of food by cattle in a communal trough, and using said information for estimating the growth curve, the food demand and the time of slaughter of each animal.

Description

 INDIVIDUAL GROWTH EVOLUTIONARY PREDICTION SYSTEM IN

 CATTLE

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The sector in which the present invention is applied in a practical way is in the livestock industry and other sectors where it is necessary to implement cost effective systems to monitor the consumption of food or drink, as well as the respective weight conversion for the food ingested.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The profitability of livestock depends strongly on the efficiency in the fattening process. An indicator of this efficiency is the rate of conversion of food into meat, or cost of food ingested between the value of the meat produced. The efficient conversion of the food depends in turn on the breed of the animal, the climate, the energy, nutritional and nutraceutical content in the formulation of the food, as well as the genetic characteristics of the animal.

Recent scientific research carried out in agricultural research centers has shown that it is possible, through selective breeding, to identify and reproduce cattle that demonstrate greater feed conversion efficiency than the average animal, hoping that their progeny will significantly inherit the efficiency of conversion observed in their parents. Research has confirmed the possibility of achieving conversion rates similar to those already achieved in the pork and chicken industry.

The conversion efficiency of an individual animal co-fed under traditional conditions is difficult to measure due to the inherent difficulty in determining the amount of food that each individual animal has consumed in the common feeder.

Several inventions have been developed to monitor the behavior of cattle on a farm or ranch, in order to detect diseases or stress before be late. Monitoring typically involves sensors designed to be implanted in the animal, inserted into a body duct or attached to the animal's ear or tail. Implants or device inserts are impractical and expensive because they are difficult to insert or are easily evicted or expelled by the animal. In addition, the implantation of the devices through an incision itself creates a risk of infection and disease.

US Pat. No. 4,865,044 provides a device that is implanted in the ear of the cow or fixed to the ear canal of the animal. The device includes a thermistor to detect the internal temperature of the cow, and also provides means to detect when the device has fallen from the animal's ear or ear canal.

Similarly, US Pat. No. 4,854,328 describes a capsule, which contains a temperature sensor and a transmitter, which is implanted in an animal. A receiver is placed on a tag that is attached to the animal's ear, like an earring, with an indicator that provides a warning when the animal's temperature is outside a predetermined range. A variation on this approach is proposed by the invention US 3,781,837, which provides an electronic device that is held around the neck of the animal and that is connected to a thermistor sensing element that is implanted in one of the animal's ear canals. . When the temperature sensor indicates that the animal's internal temperature is outside a predetermined range, an audio player provides generates a signal to indicate that the animal should be treated.

US 4,399,821 also describes implantable devices that allow the monitoring of one or more physiological parameters of cattle. US patent 3,893,111 also uses a capsule embedded in an animal to allow remote monitoring of the temperature of the animal.

Other patents have focused on the monitoring and measurement of food consumption and the weight change of animals. In the US patent. No. 3,465,724, an animal carries an electronic identifier that is detected by an automatic feeding system that opens only if it is the programmed animal. The system controls the feeding time and volume consumed by each animal. US Patent No. 3,541,995 discloses another controlled feeding system that includes a recognition device for each animal. The device measures the time of permanence of the animal in the feeding of the station and dispenses a pre-programmed amount of food for each animal. Only when another animal arrives does the dispenser release the amount of food programmed for it.

The technology described in US 3,929,277 discloses another alternative to monitor an animal's food consumption, and store this information for later use. The technology uses identifiers embedded in the skin or as an earring.

US Patent 4,532,892 describes a feeding system for cattle that includes an electronic tag attached around the neck for the identification of specific animals and thus control the amount of feed that is given to that particular animal.

The invention US 4,617,876 discloses an individual weight measurement system that uses an electronic ear tag and a scale in an individual dining room or drinking fountain. Only one cow can enter at a time.

The inventions described above are only an example of the technologies available with the objective of monitoring stress in animals or controlling the amount and type of food they eat. However, the vast majority of livestock producers have not integrated these technologies into their processes due to high implementation costs, and in some cases because they are very intrusive. These technologies require the use of feeders and individual balances, considerably increasing the investment and operation costs of a livestock production unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The characteristic details of the present invention are clearly shown in the following description and in the accompanying figures, which are mentioned by way of example, and therefore should not be considered as a limitation for said invention.

Brief description of the figures:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the electromagnetic signal collimation and detection system of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the system in question, where the identification earring used in the present invention is illustrated in more detail.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram, where the distinctive elements, wireless communication mechanism, and weight of food present and consumed, of this invention are incorporated.

With respect to the figures listed above, the evolutionary prediction system of individual growth in cattle, of the present invention, is constituted of, at least one method for predicting feed demand, slaughter time and identification of cattle stallions to Based on the estimate of individual intake in livestock eating food in collective feeders (8), said estimate of individual intake is calculated by solving simultaneous equations that each describe the total consumption of a group of animals in a period of time limited by each arrival or withdrawal of an animal in the feeder, assuming constant individual consumption rates throughout the visit of an animal to the feeder. This process is exemplified with the following sequence:

(a) V1 * T1 = W1

 (b) V1 + V2 = W2

 (c) V1 + V2 + V3 = W3 / T3

 (d) V1 + V2 + V3 + V4 = W4 / T4

 (e) V1 + V2 + V3 + V4 + V5 = W5 / T5

(f) V2 + V3 + V4 + V5 + V6 = W6 / T6 (g) V3 + V4 + V5 + V6 + V7 = W7 / T7

 (h) V4 + V5 + V6 + V7 + V8 = W8 T8

 (i) V5 + V6 + V7 + V8 + V9 = W9 / T9

 0) V6 + V7 + V8 + V9 + V10 = W10 / T10

 (k) V7 + V8 + V9 + V10 = W11 / T11

 (I) V8 + V9 + V10 = W12 / T12

 (m) V9 + V10 = W13 / T13

 (n) V10 = W14 / T14

Equation (a) describes the total weight consumed W1 by the first animal that visits the feeder (8) at a constant intake rate V1 for a time T1. Next, a second animal, described in equation (b), is incorporated, which ingests its food together with the first animal at a constant speed V2, for a time T2, and a total weight consumed between both animals W2, in this period we assume that the intake rate of the first animal remained constant. The following equations describe how more animals arrive until they reach 5 animals in the feeder and finally they are withdrawn until in equation (n) there is only one cow that ingests its food at a speed V10 for a time T10 and the balance registers a W10 food consumption in this period. Since weights and times are recorded by the balance, the 10 individual consumption speeds are the unknowns in 14 equations to be solved simultaneously. The greater number of equations that are unknown in this case allows modeling and additionally estimating 1 change in the intake rate of 4 animals, going from one period to another. The periods are limited by the arrival or withdrawal of an animal to the feeder. It is unlikely, but also possible that one day two animals arrive and leave the feeder almost simultaneously, in which case it will be difficult to determine individual consumption and only the consumption of both animals will be estimated, the next day the individual consumption of these two animals will be estimated as an average of its consumption the previous and subsequent days, with the restriction that both consumptions should match the estimated consumption the previous day. The capture of food weight consumed by the group of one or more animals by means of a digital scale (7) capable of transmitting data to an information processing unit, a computer for example; an earring (6) placed in the animal's ear with a visible pattern of identification by Fourier analysis (barcode or QR pattern of rapid response, for example) and an electronic radiofrequency signal emitter (passive RFID for example) capable of transmit a signal up to 10 meters away; a pair of antennas (1) and (2) capable of identifying the radiofrequency signals Li, n and L-2, n received only from the number of cows feeding in the feeder (8), said antennas have physical barriers that collide the unwanted radio frequency signals and prevent unwanted mirror reflections by retro reflective black surface (3), unwanted signals (9) are reflected in the same direction of incidence (IO) preventing them from reaching the detector giving a false reading, as is the case of incident signals on a flat black surface at angles less than or equal to Brewster that could undergo complete reflection and reach the detector; a traditional digital scale capable of measuring and transmitting the weight of each animal to the information processing unit; an information processing unit with multivariable correlation algorithms for second-degree response surfaces capable of modeling the multidimensional consumption-weight gain curve per animal and extrapolating over time to predict the time it will reach the predetermined weight for slaughter of the animal, as well as individual and collective demand for food, said prediction equation will be adjusted each time a new data set is captured;

Claims

1. A method to predict feed demand, slaughter time and identification of cattle stallions, comprising: estimate of individual intake in livestock eating feed in collective feeders, said estimate of individual intake is calculated by solving simultaneous equations that describe each one the total consumption of a group of animals in a limited period of time for each arrival or withdrawal of an animal in the feeder, assuming constant individual consumption speeds throughout the visit of an animal to the feeder; weight capture of food consumed by the group of animals by means of a digital scale with the ability to transmit data to an information processing unit; an earring placed in the animal's ear with a visible pattern of identification by Fourier analysis and an electronic radiofrequency signal emitter capable of transmitting a signal up to 10 meters away; a pair of antennas capable of identifying the radiofrequency signals emitted only by earrings in cows feeding at the feeder, said antennas have physical barriers that collide the unwanted radiofrequency signals and prevent unwanted mirror reflections by retro reflective black surface, unwanted signals are reflected in the same direction of incidence preventing them from reaching the detector giving a false reading, as is the case of incident signals on a flat black surface at angles less than or equal to Brewster that could undergo complete reflection and reach the detector; a traditional digital scale capable of measuring and transmitting the weight of each animal to the information processing unit; an information processing unit with multivariable correlation algorithms for response surfaces capable of modeling the multidimensional consumption curve - weight gain per animal and extrapolating over time to predict the time it will reach the predetermined weight for animal slaughter, as well Like the individual and collective demand for food, said prediction equation will be adjusted each time a new data set is captured; 2. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the modeling equations of individual and collective consumption patterns detect changes significant and generate audiovisual alarms indicating a possible unwanted event that requires attention to an animal or the cattle herd as a whole, these changes in patterns can be speed or intake times; 3. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the wireless communication signals between earrings and antennas is low frequency, 2 to 3 GHz; 4. A system as described in claim 1, wherein the feeders can house up to 10 cows with signal repeaters installed between the two antennas;