Smart sheep: precision livestock farming and sustainable sheep production

该项目致力于在绵羊养殖中采用精准家畜养殖(PLF)技术。PLF已被广泛应用于奶牛等高价值动物的管理，但目前尚未应用于经济价值较低的动物，如绵羊，尽管有可能提高生产效率。在英国，大约有2330万只绵羊，其中包括1470万只种羊，价值约6.9亿GB。自2010年以来，英国所有的羊个体都配备了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。最近对欧洲牧羊人的一项调查显示，只有38%的牧场主拥有任何宰牲节设备，这些设备很少用于绵羊管理。同样，在英国，一项关于采用PLF技术的调查显示，55%的农民没有也不打算采用EID技术用于管理目的。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，以增加农场对PLF的吸收。我们将使用一个经过验证的PLF工具；一个现有的笔端工具来优化羔羊的蠕虫，使用一种算法来早期识别表现不佳的羔羊。这种靶向选择性治疗(TST)已经在MRI开发，并在MRI、SRUC和商业农场进行了验证，其中包括由5agi推动的一项。采用TST减少了更糟糕的使用和劳动力，并减少了所需的成本。重要的是，它减缓了对虫子的抵抗力。农民们描述了在农场上显然需要这种方法。然而，由于农民缺乏一种用户友好的方法来访问该算法，目前农业社区的可用性受到阻碍。该项目将促进将算法集成到基于云的平台中，从而使农民可以轻松访问。改进后的技术将在英国各地的10个创新羊场和2个研究羊场进行验证，覆盖一系列地理位置，并使用商业上合适的绵羊品种，以确保证据与广泛的羊场相关。将进行实施新方法的成本效益分析和碳足迹。该项目的结果将通过在英国各地战略地点的农场知识交流活动来传播，以展示使用这种综合的笔边TST方法的简便性、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.