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 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.

Sensor Spotlight: Water Meters

Most of our discussion so far has been on the feed side of livestock agriculture: ordering properly, feed outages, feed budgets and overall execution of the feed side.  There is a lot of money left on the table in feed execution for a typical livestock producer, that is my belief.  Water consumption and air quality are right up there.  Water is something that can be monitored fairly easily and is growing in importance in a world that is more concerned about its water resources than ever before.  Monitoring can provide actionable alerts with payback as well as provide a lot of insight into animal health and should be a key performance indicator.

Basic Water Monitoring.

There are many different types of water meters in the market today.  Every barn I have been in has a water meter with a gallon count.  Most barn workers are required to write down the water reading each day, subtract from the previous day and attempt to keep track of daily water usage on a piece of paper at the barn.  Many water flow meters come with a digital, or pulse output, which can then be connected to a Multisense gateway and sent into the cloud.

Alerts.

Once the water reading is sent to the cloud it passes through the customize-able alert engine to determine if an alert condition has been met with the individual piece of data.  Furthermore, Grovestreams allows alert conditions to be set as data is aggregated, calculated or whatever you might wish to do with the data over time.  For example, a standard alert condition that I have set up for each water monitoring install is at 1201am, I look at the previous day total water / animal vs the previous 5 days average.  If that total is 90% or less or 110% or more it triggers an email alert.

I have not set it up; but a user could also check this total at different points of the day, perhaps at 10am it could be compared to the previous 5 days midnight to 10am total / animal.  Again at 4pm and finally at midnight.

A user may also wish to trigger an alert condition when so much water is flowing it can only be attributed to a leak.  If water consumption spikes > 500% in a given hour compared to the average hour.  Or if the barn manager wants to know if 50 gallons or more is recorded in an hour all of those alerts could be set up around water usage.

A 5 day water / animal average chart is shown below.  One day on Aug 4 there was a drop in water consumption by 9%.  I am not sure the cause.  Otherwise, most days have shown a 3-5% increase from the previous day.

Many users wish to see the data in a column chart versus the previous X days.  That can look something like this.  Or we can put it in a dashboard ready for viewing at any given time.

Payback opportunities.

With water there are quite a few payback opportunities that arise from having solid monitoring and analytics programs around it.  A few worth pointing out.

1.  Manure level and quality.  Water leaks or poor nipple settings that result in large quantities of water in the manure pit or on the poultry side in the litter can have costly consequences.

a.  With swine, having to empty a pit in the spring time is not ideal.  Even if a spring pumping is avoided, extra gallons to pump can add up.  Pumping manure pits is estimated to cost 1-2 cents per gallon.   50,000 additional gallons of water in the pit can cost $500-1000 annually.  Plus crop producers want to pay for nutrients, not water.  Diluted manure can be harmful to maximizing the value of your manure.

b.  With poultry, wet litter causes increased ammonia levels and a worse environment for the bird.  This can be costly to the production costs.

2.   Drops in water consumption can help a producer detect health challenges in a group.  Any tools that help detect health issues sooner can result in big savings for that group of animals.

3.  A serious malfunction like a well pump failure or leak that results in animals not getting water for a period of time can be very costly just like a feed outage can be.  The sooner that type of problem is identified and water is restored to the animals the more productive the animals will be.

Water meters themselves are not expensive.  Connecting them to the cloud/internet can be.  Installing water meters in addition to other sensors, such as bin sensors and feed line sensors is incrementally low-cost.

In conclusion, water meters are a proven well known technology.  Connecting them to the cloud and putting heavy analytics to the data is a logical next step for animal agriculture.  Particularly when water use in agriculture is a growing concern in many parts of the world.  Alerts that allow barn workers to fix leaked or broken water lines quickly can save money.  Trends that suggest health challenges can alert veterinarians to sick animals before it is too late.