Thursday, August 13, 2015

Sensor Spotlight: Feedmeter

Many years ago, Feedlogic began development of a feed line sensor with the purpose of estimating feed flowing through a standard auger line.  The way that it works is that a box with a sensor, small computer and a wireless RF communication chip is strapped to any size auger line between the feed line coming into the building and the first drop.  This is a very durable device with Feedmeters that have been in barns for over 3 years still working as they did when they were installed.  An image of the Feedmeter is shown below.


The Feedmeter can

1.  Fairly accurately estimate the duration of feed events, especially events that are longer than 10 seconds.
2.  Estimate feed weight delivered by event.
3.  Alert a user to a feed related problem.

How does FarmStreams use and improve the information from this sensor in our system?

1.  Upon arrival we pass each data point through our robust alerting engine.  Alert conditions are customizable by user; but the key ones are going to be around feed outages and then some of the analytics comparing actual feed usage to budget.

2.  Based upon other streams - mostly software streams (budget information) and BinLogic bin level sensor streams we can calibrate the weight data in the cloud, improving accuracy.

3.  The estimated feed intake predicts when feed orders will need to be placed.  Software can place the orders or a person reviewing the data can place the orders.

4.  Create actual intake curves and compare them to a customizable budget threshold curve.


5.  Estimate average weight of the animal and compare to a budgeted weight.  A future sensor spotlight will focus on scales that can be integrated with FarmStreams.


In conclusion, the Feedmeter can provide at its very basic level a very good alerting tool for feed problems.  Most experts believe that feed outages are the biggest contributor to poor ADG and feed conversion.  The reasons for the feed outages vary but the first step is knowing about them, recording them and fixing them as they happen.  Not all sites have these problems; but sites that do should strongly consider installing Feedmeters to get a handle on the situation.  In addition to the immediate alerting functionality, the Feedmeter provides the analytic guys a whole wealth of information in real time that can be used to improve processes within the system.  I would strongly recommend installing both the Feedmeter and BinLogic simultaneously for maximum accuracy in the data.  As Peter Drucker often said - "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."

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