Smart Farming

Precision Live Stock Farming

Precision farming (PLF) is a set of agricultural practices, including the use of advanced technologies, to provide better results in farming. These results can be quantitative, qualitative and / or related to sustainability and the technologies involved include cameras, microphones and other sensors for monitoring livestock, as well as computer software. PLF is a tool for livestock management by means of continuous and automated monitoring of animals in real time to improve production / reproduction, health and welfare and environmental impact.

Precision farming (PLF) is made possible by monitoring each individual animal or by objective measurements on animals, by algorithms for signal analysis and statistical analysis. These modern techniques are applied in part with the aim of recovering an advantage of older, small-scale agriculture, namely a detailed knowledge of individual animals.

Using modern information technologies, farmers can record numerous attributes of each animal, such as pedigree, age, reproduction, growth, health, feed conversion, kill rate (carcass weight as a percentage of its live weight) and quality of the animal. meat. Animal welfare, infection, aggression, weight, feed and water intake are variables that can now be monitored by PLF technology.

Generally the most common PLF software applications are the following:

• Automated Livestock Management Software
• Playback enhancement software
• Feed formulation software
• Quality management software

As far as the activities of T.net for PLF are concerned, the activities focused on dairy cattle breeding, producing sensors and software used for:

• Lameness monitoring
• Control of estrus
• Monitoring of birth
• Control of the amount of food ingested
• Monitoring of the quantity and quality of the milk produced
• Control of livestock welfare with control, through environmental sensors installed in the barn, of the degree of heat and humidity present, as well as of the accumulation of methane gas (CH4), providing for the automatic control of the actuators for the cooling and forced ventilation systems.

Fire Surveillance, Moisture and PH Measurments, Weather Conditions and Forecasting

IoT technology can be used for the control of crops or wooded areas both by installing sensors that monitor the amount of combustion residues and, in more critical areas, through thermal cameras that can detect the so-called “infant flares” early on.

When monitoring is necessary over large areas, data fusion is once again used, i.e. the analysis through artificial intelligence algorithms of data from different types of sensors (PH, Humidity, CO, CO2, Meteorological Conditions) and from special thermal imaging cameras installed on drones. To these, you can set up additional devices such as LIDARs, that can be added to identify and acquire information on the subsoil and on the state of vegetation in large quantities and in short times.

The set of these technologies combined with an intelligent network, normally based on LoRa or 4g / 5g or Wi-Fi network, allows to obtain great results in terms of improving both plant and animal production, contributing to the well-being of people and to exploitation, sustainable environment by man, making the consumption of water or fertilizers more efficient, for example.

Dairy cows involved in Smart processes wear an intelligent collar with an infrared sensor and a 6-axis gyroscope; GPS is optional if animals are to graze instead of being fed in stables. The collars detect movements and other data that are stored in the Cloud. Farmers can use their smartphones, tablets or Smart glasses to monitor the status of the animals, check their nutrition or arrange for the execution of a command. Through our “cockpit” – Cow Operation Center – it will be possible at a glance to monitor the “status of the dairy cow”:

– Green: Excellent state of health
– Yellow: ready for fertilization
– Orange: pregnant
– Purple: suspected disease
– Blue: subject to medication and veterinary care
– Red: high body temperature or any other alarm

Our studies and projects therefore merge with the theme of Precision Agriculture, an agriculture that aims to optimize the management of fields in terms of:

– Crop science, suggesting the necessary crop needs to agricultural practices (e.g. insertion of fertilizers)
– Environmental protection, reducing environmental risks for example by limiting nitrogen leaching
– Economy, increasing competitiveness through more efficient models such as better management of the use of fertilizers

Precision Agriculture and Smart Agriculture offer farmers a wealth of information for:

– Build an event log
– Improve decision making
– Promote greater traceability
– Improve the marketing of agricultural products
– Promote lease agreements and relationships with owners
– Improve the intrinsic quality of the products