Smart sheep: precision livestock farming and sustainable sheep production

该项目涉及在绵羊养殖中采用精准畜牧业（PLF）技术。PLF已被广泛应用于高价值动物（如奶牛）的管理，但目前尚未应用于经济价值较低的动物（如绵羊），尽管它有可能提高生产效率。在英国，大约有2330万只羊，其中包括1470万只母羊，其经济价值约为6.9亿英镑。自2010年以来，英国所有的羊都配备了EID（电子识别）标签，进一步为PLF技术的使用铺平了道路。然而，吸收是一个主要问题。最近一项针对欧洲牧羊户的调查显示，只有38%的牧羊户拥有EID设备，这些设备很少用于羊的管理。同样，在英国，一项关于PLF技术采用情况的调查显示，55%的农民没有也不打算采用EID技术进行管理。项目联盟将在项目早期与最终用户（农业社区成员和农业顾问）接触，共同设计工具，以增加PLF在农场的应用。我们将使用一个经过验证的PLF工具；一种现有的围栏边工具，用于优化羔羊蠕虫，使用算法早期识别表现不佳的羔羊。这种靶向选择性治疗（TST）已在MRI、SRUC和商业农场（包括5Agri促成的一个农场）开发并得到验证。TST的采用减少了妇女的使用和劳动力，以及所需的成本。重要的是，它减缓了蠕虫抗药性的发展。农民们已经描述了在农场上对这种方法的明确需求。然而，农业社区的可用性目前受到农民访问该算法缺乏用户友好方法的阻碍。该项目将促进将算法集成到基于云的平台中，从而使农民更容易使用该算法。改良技术的验证将在英国的10个“创新”和2个研究羊场进行，覆盖一系列地理位置，并使用商业上合适的羊品种，以确保证据与广泛的羊场相关。实施新方法的成本效益分析和碳足迹分析将会进行。该项目的结果将通过在英国各地的战略地点举行的农场知识交流活动进行传播，以展示使用这种综合的围栏侧TST方法的便利性、可及性、成本效益和环境效益。

This project addresses the adoption of precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies in sheep farming. PLF has been widely adopted in the management of high-value animals e.g. dairy cattle, but is not currently applied to those with lower economic value, e.g. sheep, despite the potential to increase production efficiency. In the UK, there are around 23.3 million sheep, including 14.7 million breeding ewes worth approximately £690 million to the economy. Since 2010, all individual sheep in the UK are equipped with EID (Electronic Identification) tags, further paving the way for use of PLF technologies. However, uptake is a major issue. A recent survey of European sheep farmers showed that only 38% of farmers have any EID equipment, which are rarely used for sheep management. Likewise, in the UK, a survey of PLF technology adoption showed that 55% of farmers did not have and did not intend to adopt EID technology for management purposes.The project consortium will engage with end-users (members of the farming community and farming advisors) early in the project, to co-design tools to increase the uptake of PLF on-farm. We will use one proven PLF tool; an existing pen-side tool to optimise lamb worming, using an algorithm for the early identification of under-performing lambs. This Targeted Selective Treatment (TST) has been developed at MRI and validated at MRI, SRUC and on commercial farms, including one facilitated by 5Agri. The adoption of TST reduces wormer use and labour, and the costs required. Importantly, it slows the development of wormer resistance. Farmers have described a clear need for this type of approach on farm. However availability to the farming community is currently hampered by the lack of a user-friendly method for farmers to access the algorithm. This project will facilitate the integration of the algorithm into a cloud-based platform, thereby making it easily accessible to farmers.Validation of the improved technology will be performed on 10 'innovative' and 2 research sheep farms across the UK, covering a range of geographical locations and using commercially appropriate sheep breeds to ensure evidence that is relevant to a wide range of sheep farms. Cost-benefit analysis and carbon foot-printing of implementing the new approach will be conducted.The results of this project will be disseminated through on-farm knowledge exchange events at strategic locations across the UK to demonstrate the ease, accessibility, cost-benefit and environmental benefit of using this integrated pen-side TST approach.