New direction for the development of livestock breeding - RFID tags can greatly improve breeding efficiency

With the increasing popularity of RFID technology in livestock breeding management, marking livestock through RFID technology can realize the automatic collection and management of livestock information during the breeding process, making the breeding process more scientific and transparent, and greatly improving the efficiency of livestock breeding. .

The application of RFID technology in livestock breeding management mainly includes identifying and tracking livestock information, monitoring the breeding environment, and managing breeding production. By installing an RFID electronic tag on each animal and collecting information through an RFID Reader, individual animals in the farm can be tracked, positioned and monitored. At the same time, a unified information File can be established for livestock, including breed, birthday, gender, vaccination status and other information, so that managers can understand the health and growth of livestock in real time.

UHF RFID electronic tags track the behavior of free-range chickens

Perdue Farms, one of the largest table chicken producers in the United States, has been looking to expand its free-range chicken population to provide higher quality chicken and a better lifestyle for its flocks. This means that more and more farms will allow chickens to move freely in and out of the coop and peck outside in pastures, creating organic or free-range pastures. It is reported that the company is conducting a six-month project using RFID technology to track the behavior of free-range chickens to encourage pasture farmers to raise more free-range chickens outdoors.

Stewart Brown, Perdue Farms' senior vice president of technical services and innovation, claims that 25% of the 12 million chickens the company produces each week are free-range. This expansion of free-range chicken farming means for farmers a lot of modifications to traditional chicken houses that do not have access to the outside environment. The question is if you cut a square hole in the chicken coop and then fence the pasture, what will happen to the chickens after they exit the hole.

RFID technology can not only track how many chickens are outside, but also their living habits. "I wanted to know the differences between the flocks and how long they stayed outside," Stuart Brown said.

Six months ago, Perdue Farms began building a UHF RFID system at its test farm in Salisbury, Maryland, to understand the movement of its free-range chickens in and out of the coop. It separates 1,000 of the 5,000 chickens into a dedicated RFID management space and assigns each chicken an RFID tag with a unique ID number. The square hole cut out for the chicken coop measures 2 feet high and 4 feet wide.

Stuart Brown said, "Engineering has been more of a challenge than we imagined. It sounds easy but is harder to do because chicken behavior is unpredictable. Chickens wearing RFID tags will often move closer to the square hole, then back up, reverse and swarm through the hole.”

Perdue Farms found that because the antennas were deployed too close to the ground, radio frequency energy was being grounded. So it reconfigured the antenna, raising it to the bottom edge of the square hole, with the two antennas about 4 inches apart to identify the direction. Stuart Brown said the range was lowered to prevent confusing flock tags from being read. In addition, the location of the two antennas can also cause radio frequency interference.

Perdue Farms is not only working to determine the correct configuration of RFID reader antennas and RFID tag sizes, but is also considering software options. The company is currently collecting data on test farms, and in the long term it hopes to be able to access the information remotely, making it easier to temporarily deploy the technology on numerous farms. For example, the company might build about 10 systems that can be moved between different sites. Currently, the farm has about 800 free-range chicken houses, each with about 20 square openings.

RFID tags improve breeding efficiency of laying hens

Poultry can be successfully classified into low, medium or high activity categories through RFID tags installed on the legs of laying hens. The study found that birds with low activity spent the most time on the bottom layer, while birds with moderate and high activity spent the most time in the middle or top layers. In addition, cage-free laying hens with low activity levels had fewer keel fractures, while those with medium or high activity levels had more keel fractures.

Prafulla Regmi, an assistant professor in the Department of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia, said birds with more keel fractures tend to use top perches to avoid the pain of broken bones and avoid other birds. Cage-free housing increases the opportunities for birds to interact, which also increases the incidence of feather pecking, cannibalism and other health problems. Additionally, free-range chicken coop manufacturers all build their aviary systems in different ways, making it difficult for producers to know how birds will move between levels.

The study categorized low-activity birds as those that transitioned between levels less than 5 times per day, moderate-activity birds as 5-12 transitions, and high-activity birds as more than 12 transitions. Low activity birds account for about 25% of the flock, medium activity birds account for about 50%, and high activity birds account for about 25%.

About 80% of low-activity birds roost on the bottom at night. Moderately active birds are evenly distributed in the middle and top layers. Most active birds live on the top floors. He explained that highly active birds that roost on the top floors are more active at night and sometimes appear to push each other off the top floors.

Based on the activity patterns, Regmi believes there may be social structures associated with the movement. Regmi said future research will focus on whether activity patterns affect egg production and quality. RFID technology helps manage the activities of laying hens in free-range mode and can further improve the efficiency of laying hens.