Tracking medication use on the farm

Medication use, specifically antibiotics on the farm are a spotlight issue for animal agriculture.  Consumers, restaurants, retailers and politicians are joining the discussion.  Traceability is a common buzzword that is heard on medications at the farm.  This is a particularly difficult issue to install an iot solution around because of the intrinsic need for people to execute at the ground level.  Since we are not medicating animals daily, it is not a part of the daily routine, which makes it more difficult to train people to execute these important processes.  We think the data platform and mobile app we have developed can help.  Here is what we are doing in FarmStreams:

The mobile app allows two different type of updates:

1.  A QR code or NFC type system where medications are bar-coded or QR coded before going to the farm.  Each doser or medicator in the farm site is also bar coded or NFC coded.  A barn worker would scan in the medicine, verify its correct.  Enter the amount.  Then scan the doser at the water line before setting it.  Repeat same process for stopping the medicine only just scan the doser code and STOP.

Some snapshots of what that looks like is below:

   

2.  If the QR/barcode/NFC type system is too complex we also have the option to just have the barn worker use the app to select from a drop-down menu what and where they are adding meds to the water.  Enter the amount.  When finished stop the medication in the app.

The mobile app can also be set up to do other process verification steps such as:

1.  Have the vet dispatch instructions for a specific group to be given a specific medication and a specific amount by a certain time.

2.  Send customized and frequently updated instructions/messages for the selected medication.  Withdrawal days, mixing instructions, other pertinent data that may not be on the bag itself.

3.  An email can be sent to the vet notifying them the medication event began / ended.

4.  If the medication event has not occurred within a specific timeframe then an alert notifying the vet and supervisor is also sent.

The mobile app cannot ensure that the medication that was entered into it actually got into the water and to the animals.  These processes break down quickly when you don't have participation from the workforce.  We have discussed labor quality previously in the blog.

On the sensor side most of the dosers in the market today do not have cloud connectivity or even local data storage.  This often makes people throughout the organization blind to what is going on inside the farm.  If there are issues like plugged diaphragms they must be troubleshot and recorded by the worker on site.  Data quality is often compromised and not uniformly gathered.

There are newer doser products that are sold at Farm Tech Store that connect to the cloud using the MultiSense sensor gateway.  These measure water consumption, medications injected (how much and when) to the cloud.  When combined with the data entered in the mobile app, you have a report of exactly what went in the water, how much and at what times.  Critical streams needed for a good traceability program.

One issue that is not resolved yet is having that medicine / medicator handshake on what product is going into the water.  You still need a human to enter that data, a potential weak link in the data chain.  In the future some type of cartridge or other medication reading technology may be placed within the medicator hardware; but for now that is futuristic thinking.  It can be done; but need someone to pay for it.

Another issue that is possible; but not practical today is to have the vet receive an email telling them that the medication is in the medicator ready to be inserted into the water.  The medicator can be started with an approval from the vet's mobile app.  100% possible, impractical to develop until someone says they want that level of control over their medications on the farm.

When we get over to the data side in Grovestreams this is where we can put some logic and alerts around checks / balances to ensure the processes are followed properly.

For example,

If a vet has dispatched a medication event, set an alert that lets you know if it has not been done within 4 hours in the barn.  Double check not only the app but also the medicator data stream.  The medication should be entered into the app and flowing to animals within X hours or vet/supervisor are being alerted.

Once the medication has started check to see if it has stopped by X hours.  If it is still medicating after 48 hours for example, send an alert or if medicator is set up to be turned on/off remotely, turn off remotely either with software or with an app.

Cross reference other data in the store.  If a specific medication shouldn't be given to birds greater than 24 pounds.  Check that, cross reference it.  If its greater, send an alert.

Produce reports that document how much and over what times were medications given by barn.  Further analytics from the feed sensors, scales and water lines would dive into whether they were effective and possibly deliver payback scenarios in real-time.

There is technology that can help organize the process around medications on the farm.  However there is not an easy button.  It still requires 100% buy-in throughout the organization in the value of the data and a commitment to the process.

Entering Temperature in Mobile App

In my last blog entry, we identified temperature sensors as being a low-cost sensor providing valuable information to barn workers, managers and analysts in a livestock operation.  If installing sensors and connecting them to the cloud is not in the cards but the data would be valuable to collect perhaps the mobile app is a worthwhile option.

Select the temperature icon from the customize-able list of options.

Select the Group reporting.  This is a drop-down based upon groups your user-id has access to update.  Timestamp is set at the current timestamp, cannot be edited in the standard option.  Then an decimal entry field for low (required), average (not required) and high (required).  Most barn controllers will have options for a user to look at the previous day's high and low reading.

Once the data is collected in the cloud, charts showing the data over time are standard.  Other analytics are also possible as we discussed in the last blog entry.

The mobile app option is an improvement over just leaving the data in the barn on the controller.  Some of the improvements are:

1.  A requirement for the barn workers to look at the temperature every day.

2.  Getting the data into the cloud gives you flexibility and centralization to your process improvements efforts.  Also an ability to correlate data to other interesting data like feed, water, and mortalities to name a few.

3.  If barn workers are not doing the work each day, you can structure alerts around missing data.  If a barn worker does not enter temperature for 30 hours an alert goes to their direct supervisor.  If 72 hours passes it escalates to a manager.  Rapid feedback of compliance issues.

The mobile app still has some potential flaws, including:

1.  Barn workers may falsify data entries if it makes them look bad.  Difficult to prosecute.

2.  Actionable alerts are delayed versus real time sensor data.

In conclusion, logging temperature data in a mobile app is a low-cost step for well-run producers to more easily collect on-farm data into the cloud for analytics or push into their own enterprise systems.  For poorer managed sites, it is a step in the right direction for behavior and process improvement.  FarmStreams mobile app runs on both Android and IOS.  Contact us to set up your site today.

Entering Water in Mobile App

Not everyone will have the budget to install water meters but still have a need to pull water information off the farm into the cloud and/or into their enterprise level software system.  In my previous blog I explained the way on farm water meters work and how a user might get a payback (beyond just the peace of mind that your animals are always getting water or that water is not spilling all over your barn).  Many of the same ideas can apply with entering water readings into the mobile app; but with far less real-time alerting or off-hours coverage.

The app has a water screen located here:

Once you select Water you open a screen that looks like this:

Select the barn you are inputting water data for.  

The times are not editable.  What you see is the current timestamp and the previous entry's timestamp.  

Enter the reading as you see it on the meter right in front of you.  The previous reading is shown on the screen for comparison purposes.  The water usage is calculated for you.

Select "Submit Water" and the gallons used for the previous period is submitted.  

Right now the total gallons with the current timestamp is what goes to the store.  This can cause bumps in the data when the data is not entered regularly at the same time.  A enhancement forthcoming soon in GroveStreams will allow us to submit an average gallons per minute rate (or per hour or whatever is easiest) and drop data in the store that is smoothed out for each unit of time between the previous timestamp and the current timestamp.  Although most enter water data daily, barn workers could enter the information at the beginning and end of the shift for more accurate time-series data.

Cons of the mobile app reporting water:

1.  Major leaks or other water-related issues that happen when no one is there will not be known until the barn worker arrives again the next day.

2.  If barn worker forgets to enter the data in a day or several days in a row the data can get bad quickly.  On that note, an administrator can set the maximum hours without a report as an escalated alert event.  For example, if 36 hours passes without the barn worker entering any water data their supervisor would get an email.

3.  Without a sensor you are relying on the barn worker to honestly report the information.  If a major leak occurred or animals go without water they may try and cover it up by falsifying the data entered.

Conclusion:

Most all livestock producers try and collect water records on a daily basis.  This is typically done with paper-based record keeping and maybe phoning or emailing the records in on a weekly basis.  Water meters connected to the cloud is the best way to monitor; but for budget-minded producers a mobile app can also be an effective way to collect water information remotely, analyze it and create alerts off the data.  If the goal is to get water data from a mobile app into your enterprise level system that can be accomplished also.  FarmStreams provides a simple water collection page in the app today with enhancements forthcoming that will make it even better.

Feed inventory in mobile app

We discussed using various sensors to estimate on farm feed inventory in the last blog entry.  Several different sensors are on the market, we prefer the BinLogic sensor for its simplicity and cost.  Whatever sensor is used, getting the data into Grovestreams for analytics/alerting is crucial.  However, in some cases some farms may still want the person at the farm to climb bins each week or several times a week and take a feed inventory and report it more efficiently to the feed mill or management.  Even if bin sensors are installed it may be valuable to also get physical inventory entries on the site pushed into the data store.

Here is how it works.  The Farmsteams mobile app allows for a user to submit feed inventory based on a visual assessment of the feed bins on the farm.  The app has been programmed to allow setting up to 10 feed bins for each group housing unit.  Any more would be a custom programming request.  A user on the farm must submit feed inventory for all feed bins in the group during a single submission.  This ensures the most accurate data in the data store.  A screenshot of the app's interfact is shown:

The FarmStreams mobile app (which can be downloaded here:) 

       Android http://tinyurl.com/mqgskr3

       Apple http://tinyurl.com/pclejlh

Pros/Cons.

Pros:

1.  Writing down and calling/faxing in later has flaws.  Timing may be off, people lose their scribblings, the person answering the phone might not be available, etc.  Entering in the mobile app as it happens reduces lost communications and bad data.

2.  Grovestreams alerting engine allows us to set alerts around timing of entries.  If the rule is once a week to take an inventory, management can get an alert to their email on the 8th day without an entry.  Easier to manage than reviewing a spreadsheet or scribblings in an office.

3.  Phone calls and faxes are difficult to track for employee performance.  The database is set up to keep track of all the times it was entered but also can be set up to track all the times it was supposed to be entered but wasn't.  This can be included in the report at the end of the turn.

4.  Software streams can produce graphical feed curves, compare to a budget range, estimate feed orders, etc.  An example graphical feed curve chart that looks like below can be produced and delivered via email daily/weekly/etc. or accessed in real time by logging into the platform and viewing your dashboards.

Cons:

1.  People don't always climb the bins, perhaps they throw a rock or just guess.  Climbing the bins in January isn't fun.

2.  Feed, particularly mash feed is very difficult to estimate visually.  It doesn't always flow evenly and peering down the top of a bin can be visually tricky.  The bin sensors like BinLogic and ultrasonic have similar issues; but at least their error factors should be relatively consistent.  Meaning that a 1/2 ton discrepancy from actual is consistent every reading which minimizes the noise in the reading data and can be dealt with in software.

3.  May be difficult to enforce at some sites (likely your worst performers).  If they are not climbing bins now giving them an app and asking them to do it isn't going to change that.  Perhaps with the Farmstreams mobile app and the powerful back-end data system, management could implement incentive programs with measurable performance standards.

Strategy: Installing bin sensors is the best; but if that is not possible entering the inventory in a mobile app is better than the way it is normally done of calling or faxing data in.  If a user is not ready to go all the way with fully integrated sensor systems the mobile app can be a great way to get started collecting important information from the farm site and using cloud-based Big Data technology to find value in your livestock operation.

Recording mortalities

The original purpose of why we created the FarmStreams mobile app was because we needed an easy way to upload daily mortalities into Grovestreams.  This was important because animal inventory was needed to run certain ratios, such as water/pig or feed/chicken.  Recording mortalities and keeping track of inventory is a task that is done today on paper or a local computer at nearly every farm.  Typically the barn worker calls or faxes in the results once a week to an office somewhere that enters them into a spreadsheet or database.

As the mobile app evolved we began adding more features that people wanted.  But its origin truly was only to give us a way to easily enter mortalities into Grovestreams for record keeping and as required for the analytics engines.

Here is how the mortalities work:

Step 1, open the app.

Step 2, click the "Mortalities" icon

Step 3, select the group the mortality occurred in, the date and enter the found / euth.

The app then uploads the data via API transfer into Grovestreams where we can do all sorts of things with it.  Some examples:

• Keep a running count of mortalities and inventory.  
• Push the data into an enterprise level system through the API Transfer
• Chart mortality %

• Chart mortality % versus budget

• Although I have not accomplished this yet it would be fairly easy to benchmark and chart each site's mortality against the entire system's mortality based upon the day/week in the turn.

• Accurately update various ratios such as: water gallons / pig with current inventory each day.

• Generate alerts from the mortality data.  For example, 
• alert when mortality goes above the budget and stays there for more than 7 consecutive days.
• alert when no mortalities are entered for 7 or more days.
• alert when more than 1% of the population is reported in a 3 day period.

I am outlining a lot of complicated reports and alerts that can be generated just to show readers the robustness of the system we have developed.  In reality, most producers just want a way to submit mortalities from their cell phone or tablet and easily view the running total online or get the data into their own enterprise level system easier or faster.  We are working on getting the running total back into the mobile app; but don't have that piece developed yet.  Stay tuned.

Mobile app for livestock producers

In my first blog post I discussed sensors and software and their usefulness in managing a confined livestock farm.  As great as sensors are that just sit and collect useful data on the site storing in the cloud with near real-time analytics (and that is very great) managers still need to collect data from the people working on the site each and every day.  Most systems require certain information to be recorded each day on the farm site.  Common pieces of data would include:

• mortalities for each group by type
• water readings from the meter 
• temperature from the controller (high and low) 
• feed deliveries
• medications
• feed estimates in the bin (this is perhaps a weekly or bi-weekly task)

Recording the information at the site is fraught with problems.  The information stays local.  Other people in the chain like vets, nutritionists, feed mill operators and animal owners experience delays in receiving the information.  What if the barn worker does chores from 6am-11am each day and the vet needs information at noon.  They have to wait until the barn worker can return to the site before they can get the information.  The exact timing of the information can be lost.  Employees can also sanitize the information before sending it out so that it doesn't make them look so bad.

Collecting data still comes down to how motivated the worker on the farm is, no different than when it is required to take the daily paper logs.  Collecting the data to the cloud will allow other people in the system to access information quickly and in a uniform manner.  Poor data collectors will quickly be identified with the alerting functions already available in Grovestreams.  The poor performers can be given measures to improve quickly.  

We created an app called FarmStreams to allow this information to be collected into the cloud for further processing or direct transfer into a larger enterprise level system.  The app can be found here for downloading: 

       Android http://tinyurl.com/mqgskr3

       Apple http://tinyurl.com/pclejlh 

Future blog posts will go into detail on each of the pieces of data that we collect, how we do it, why we do it and what it is used for.  Certain data is very cut and dry like mortalities.  Other data like medications is more abstract because they can be administered in so many different ways and in so many different units of measure.  We will work through how this is programmed in the app as we engage more producers with different needs.  Other data like temperature, water, and feed estimating are best collected with a sensor; but cost and connecting to cloud can be a constraint.