‘Listening ear’ helps give boost to laying hen performance

• Helps optimise egg production

• Data on flock health and welfare

• Good for birds and farm income

Acoustic sensors could help boost the health and welfare of laying hens – saving money and optimising egg production.

The project uses state-of-the-art sensors to monitor birds through novel sound technology and the analysis of egg quality data to provide flock health and welfare information..

Bird welfare

Researchers hope their findings will improve bird welfare while easing the financial pressures from soaring energy, feed and labour costs – as well as a range of environmental challenges and avian influenza.

Called Flockwise, the project brings together experts from FAI Farms, the Lakes Free Range Egg Company, Newcastle University and the UK Agri-Tech Centre. It has received grant funding from Innovate UK.

‘Significant gains’

Ultimately, the goal is to produce welfare friendly eggs that are nutritious, affordable and sustainable using artificial intelligence to provide community-based learning to farmers and the supply chain.

FAI Farms has secured significant gains in hen health and productivity by using a hen management system called BirdBox. The Flockwise project aims to build on this success.

Fiona Short, innovation lead at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said: “Flockwise will work with farmers to ensure the technology is practical and effective, enhancing user experience while improving the sustainability of egg production.”

The BirdBox system combines data collection software with in-house sensor hardware, including an integrated bird weigher, light, humidity, air quality, temperature, feed bin weigh cells, water and power monitoring.

Targeted guidance

Environmental and production data is integrated to provide the information required to support daily flock management – and provide targeted guidance for farmers to intervene when issues arise.

FAI Farms project leader Carly Scott said: “With BirdBox, we already see the benefit of monitoring the environment and management of the flock.”

“This development enables farmers to better understand the health and welfare of their birds, not only detecting, but preventing problems while supporting increased productivity.”

Described as ground-breaking, the scientists say flockwise promises to benefit hen welfare and the long-term viability of the sector, while supporting net zero operations without negatively impacting producers.

Data obtained will be used to build an industry-based learning tool to identify which interventions best reduce the welfare challenges on laying farms, support and upskill farmers to achieve higher health, welfare, and productivity in their flocks.

As well as measuring welfare, the system helps farmers to react quicker to challenges, make informed decisions on flock management and ensure regulatory compliance..

Exciting era

Lakes Free Range Egg Company chief executive David Brass said: “This piece of leading-edge innovative research has the potential to change egg-producing poultry welfare and production beyond recognition and into a new exciting era.

Increased layer farm productivity means there is a potential for gains of £40,000-£110,000 per flock made through better hen health and flock extension. This would boost UK production by 1.7 billion eggs annually..

Efficiency

Better sustainability and a lower environmental impact means more birds are reared – increasing efficiency. This means lower labour and input costs for energy and feed. In turn, lower mortality reducing the carbon footprint of each egg.

Farm business resilience is stronger, as hen health and welfare support economic productivity and resilience gains through higher welfare – and higher margin – egg products.

Professor Lucy Asher, of Newcastle University, said: “We we are proud to bring our expertise in automated animal welfare detection, social science, and explainable AI to the ground-breaking Flockwise project.”