Method for controlling breeding of free-range animals
AssigneeKristoffer Larsen Innovation A/S
InventorJesper Kristoffer Larsen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method automatically controls breeding of free-range animals. In this method, the feed consumed by each individual animal is uniquely identified and registered to enable full traceability between animals or products and the feed. The method comprises active and automatic control of the living conditions of the animals based on the monitored and recorded data so that a minimal amount of human interaction is required in the normal operation of a breeding system controlled by use of the method. Furthermore, a control system, typically comprising a general-purpose computer having a suitable computer program installed thereon, will control the operation of a breeding system.
Claims44
Method for controlling breeding of animals of a herd comprising for each animal the repeated series of steps of
- automatic identification of an individual animal by means of identification means controlled by means of a control unit to which an output significant of the identity of the animal is communicated from the identification means,
- dispersing feed to the identified animal by means of feed dispersing means of an automatic feeding unit controlled by means of the control unit, and
- adding data concerning the feeding of the identified animal to a record pertaining to said animal and storing said record on data storage means associated with the control unit, the data concerning the feeding of the identified animal comprises data suitable for unique identification of the batch/batches of feed from which the feed dispersed to the animal is taken.
Method according to 1, further comprising for each, animal the repeated series of steps of
- monitoring characteristics of each individual animal by regularly, automatically detection of said characteristics by means of detection means controlled by means of the control unit to which the detection means communicate an output signal being significant for the detected characteristics, the detection being accompanied by an automatic identification of the individual animal by means of identification means controlled by means of the control unit to which an output significant of the identity of the animal is communicated from the identification means, said characteristics comprising at least the weight of the animal,
- adding said output from the detection means into the record pertaining to the individual animal and storing of said record in the data storage means by means of the control unit,
- dispersing feed to the identified animal by means of feed dispersing means of an automatic feeding unit controlled by means of the control unit,
- detecting by means of electronic image recording means an electronic image being significant of a possible amount of feed that was not consumed by the animal to which it was dispersed and processing said image by means of data processing means to determine said possible amount,
- and adding data concerning the feeding of the identified animal, including said determined possible amount, to a record pertaining to said animal and storing said record on data storage means associated with the control unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.