The demand for livestock products is increasing throughout the globe with population growth, urbanization, and overall growth of income. Financially, feed costs represent 70% of all variable costs of livestock production. Good, quality feed improves livestock productivity, resulting in lower age at first calving and shorter calving intervals. For agriculture operations, that means increased productive life and profit. Proper feed timing helps with immunity, reproduction, and even environmental sustainability as energy and nutrients from the land (feed) turns into highly nutritious food. The subject could be a matter of life or death for some countries as food demands continue to increase:
Animal Source Food Feed Production Increases 2009-2016
• US 14.1%
• Brazil 18.8%
• Europe 24.5%
• China 74.8%
• Africa and the Middle East 106.3%
Demand for feed has introduced technological solutions. Top solutions include:
• Analytical and operational technologies like sensors and software to track supply chain and inventory
• Feed quality enhancements for nutrition, digestibility, etc.
• Feed maintenance to ensure nutritional quality during off-season storage
• Enhanced nutrition for animals with special ingredients
SUSTAINABLE LIVESTOCK FARMING
In agriculture, especially operations engaged in Precision Livestock Farming, sustainability has become a business imperative. Cargill calls sustainability “the new normal.” Sustainability means that an operation can maintain a process. For PFL farmers, sustainability requires technologies with sensors, software, and modern feed strategies to reduce livestock emissions.
FEEDVIEW SOFTWARE PROVIDES DETAIL FOR CRITICAL FEED OPERATIONS
BinMaster brings feed inventory technology to introduce exact measurements for Precision Livestock Farming. Many swine, cattle/dairy, and poultry operations utilizing BinMaster sensors and software can eliminate complex spreadsheets and their employees no longer climb bins to measure the contents. Sensor measurements send cloud-based data to an application like FeedView®. This reduces exhaustive paperwork, guesswork, and endless emails. FeedView can be accessed via phone, tablet, or PC – transforming the way farms schedule feed deliveries.
FeedView’allows users to manage different rations or formulations, record the use of medicated feeds and track when they are fed to each feed group. Historical reports show start and stop dates to comply with Veterinary Feed Directives. FeedView can scale from a single silo to national producers with multiple locations ensuring everyone in the operation is making decisions based on the same information.
FeedView’s dashboards provide an overview of each bin monitored and project the days until it is empty, highlighting bins that are getting low and in need of a new delivery.
FeedView software calculates the amount of feed and the amount of head space, or room available in each bin. This ensures the feed delivered will fit into the bins and reduces the risk of overfilling. Inventory data can be shared among multiple users at multiple locations.
Customizable alerts are sent via text message or email when inventory levels get low. FeedView calculates projected feed usage based on how much each animal consumes each day.
FEEDVIEW SOFTWARE COUPLED WITH BINMASTER SENSORS
• Remote monitoring via phone, tablet, or PC
• 24/7 monitoring anywhere there’s internet access
• Highly scalable for one or many bins for one or multiple operations
• Easily adaptable for single or tandem bins
• Accurate, reliable bin information updates automatically
• Eliminates manual monitoring to save time and enhance safety
• Historical reporting optimizes purchasing and auditing
