In this study, an automated selective sorting (RFID) based cattle management system was developed and evaluated as an alternative to the commonly used conventional manual management system practiced in South Africa. After incorporating RFID, electronics and automating the system, it was found that cattle handling time was reduced by an average of 63%, which was incorrect sorting.
INTRODUCTION
According to the South African Feedlot Association (SAFA, 2010), there are approximately 70 viable commercial feedlots in South Africa which account for 75%. The aim of this project was to design and develop an animal handling system incorporating RFID technology to improve livestock handling systems and facilitate improved operation and management of farms in South Africa.
REVIEW OF MANUAL AND RFID BASED CATTLE SYSTEMS
Cattle Feedlots
Handling Facility for Cattle
- Cattle Weighing System
- Tagging and Identification
- Cattle Sorting
- Feeding and Dipping System
- Challenges of Stress and Fatigue in Conventional Handling
Research results at a 500 cattle facility in South Africa show that identification and weigh-sorting procedures take approximately 3.6 seconds and 55.0 seconds to complete, with 6% being incorrectly sorted (Strydom et al., 2008 ). This extreme heart rate translates into respiratory rates in the range of 19 beats per minute and operator heart rates of 125 beats per minute have been recorded (Strydom et al., 2008).
Electronic RFID Cattle Management Systems
- Reading of Electronic Identifiers and Control Interfaces
- Applicability and Performance of Electronic Management
- Comparison between Electronics Tags and Rumen Boluses
As the transponder enters the reader's field it is activated and identified (Aarts et al., 1992). Before 1989 there was little consensus on the best implantation site for the various IETs (Aarts et al., 1992).
Case Studies of RFID Technology Implementation for Cattle Handling
- Application of RFID Tags for Cattle Management
- Animal Identification, Weighing and Auto-sorting Applications
- Case Study of a Total Management System
Walker (2009) reported that electronic ear tags in cattle make use of radio waves operating at a low frequency. Geers (1997) postulated that the use of electronic tags in animal production and management practices opens up possibilities for monitoring tasks such as automatic sorting, feeding and health treatments.
Summary of System Performance
- Characteristics of a Standard Design Handling System
- Comparison of Manual and RFID Systems
- Cost Benefit Analysis
- Statistical Methods Used to Substantiate Benefits
- Need Statement for South African Feedlots Systems
The average rate of return expresses the profit derived from the project as a percentage of the initial cost of capital. Assuming that the data are normally distributed, Student's t-test can be used to test and compare the mean performance parameters of manual and automated systems (Cox et al, 2006).
Design Problem Areas
CONCEPTUAL DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
Funder’s System Requirements
Selection Considerations
- Forward Velocity
- Lighting in Sorting Facilities
- Learning and Adaptation in Cattle
However in movement, cattle are usually afraid of the dark and thus move faster in darker environments than in lighter environments. Grandin (1980a) noted that cattle usually adopt a "follow the leader" behavior, so it is necessary to have some of the first type of gates (Murphy et al., 2008).
Concept Design and Methodology Summary
An illumination of 32-119 lux is recommended for the handling system to encourage a constant speed of the animals (McNitt, 1983).
DESIGN OF AN AUTOMATED CATTLE HANDLING SYSTEM
- Standard Design Procedures
- System Prototype Development
- Box Shaped Cattle Crush Design
- Design Problems in Existing Box Shaped Cattle Crush Systems
- Final Specifications and Detailed Design
- Cattle Flow Control Design
- Design Problems in the Existing Manual Systems
- Design Solutions
- Cattle Sliding Gates System Design
- Design Problems in the Existing Manual Systems
- Design and Final Specifications
- Identification and Weigh Box Design
- Design Problems in the Existing Manual Systems
- Detailed Design and Final Specifications
- Cattle Restraining System Selection
- Design Problems in the Existing Manual Systems
- Selection Criteria for the Restraining System
- Handler Access Gate Design
- Specification Requirements for the Handler Access Gates
- Selection Consideration for the Handler Access Gates
- Automated Cattle Sorting System Design
- Specification Requirements for the Cattle Sorting System
- Selection Consideration and Computations
- Proposed Complete System Development and Evaluation Procedure
- Summary of the System Development Process and Way Forward
The detailed design drawings of the various components are illustrated in Appendix A and Appendix B, which contain the design notes and drawings respectively. Appendix A contains the detailed design notes and Figure 10.1 in Appendix B contains a detailed drawing, specification document, bill of materials and construction procedure document of the box-shaped crush.
SYSTEM FABRICATION AND EVALUATION PROCESS
Design Modification Prior to Fabrication
- Layout Design Modification
- Handler Access Gates
- Flow Control Gate Design Modification
- Identification and Weigh Box Design Modification
- Automatic Sorting Gates Design Modification
- Ergonomics Evaluation
A Taltec neck and body clamp (Taltec, 2010), illustrated in Figure 5.3, was chosen as the appropriate restraint system and installed between the restraint area and the access gate. The elastic straps were equipped with movable holders and a Bluetooth-based computer interface, as illustrated in Figure 5.12.
Complete Fabricated and Constructed Infrastructure
Likewise, to measure the operator's effort levels, a Polar sports test heart rate monitor model S-830 was used. 3 Manufacture of restriction system Taltec RSA (Taltec, 2010) 4 Manufacture of operator access gates Taltec RSA (Taltec, 2010) 5 Manufacture of flow control double split gates Taltec RSA (Taltec, 2010) 6 Manufacture of ID-Weigh box structural. 8 Supply of automation control box Pratley New Zealand (Ward, 2011) 9 Supply of pneumatic and air control box Pratley New Zealand (Ward, 2011) 10 Supply of pneumatics, cylinders and accessories Festo Australia (Festo, 2010) 11 Supply of farm and cattle for structure evaluation Mr Greg Talbot RSA (Talbot, . 2011).
12 Provision of heart rate, stress level and time equipment Axxon RSA (Challis, 2011) 13 Provision of manual labor for infrastructure assessment Mr Greg Talbot RSA (Talbot, . 2011).
EVALUATION PROCEDURES AND OUTCOMES
Handling Duration Determination
Handling duration was defined as the time or times an animal spends in any stage of the handling system. A sample of 30 Bonsmara beef cattle was handled through the system to evaluate handling performance. The total handling duration (THtotal) is the sum of time spent in the flow passage, flow control gates, ID weighing box and sorting.
Duration from rear gate opening, cattle entering, weighing, front gate opening, cattle exiting and occasionally when the gate returns to the standard closed position. In the reverse procedure, the animals were first passed through the handling system in the manual by-pass mode and then the automated modes three times per day. The average handling duration for each procedure was then obtained and used to calculate the savings in man-hours, operating costs, system efficiency and Cardiac.
Determination of Stress and Fatigue Levels
Accuracy of the Cattle Sorting System
System Efficiency Determination
Workload Classification for Humans Varghese et al. 1994) was used to determine physiological workload as defined in Table 6.4. According to Varghese et al. (1994) PCW can be defined as the impact of work activity on the driver, i.e. PCW is an indication of how much the handling process costs in terms of physiological work, while EE shows the energy expended in the work between the two systems and is calculated using Equation 6.4 (Varghese et al., 1994).
In agricultural operations and livestock management systems, the level of technical efficiency is considered a more effective way to determine effective system improvements (Fleming et al. 2010). Technical efficiency is the efficiency with which a given set of inputs is used to produce an output. Technical efficiency can be determined using a predictor derived by Jandrow et al.
Evaluation of the System
Challenges and Solutions
Results
- Sorting Accuracy
- Work Physiology
- Stress Levels Analysis
- Summary of Results
It also includes a significance test of man-hours saved by using the automated system. The RFID system required five men to operate, while the manual system required three additional men to operate the front and rear gates of the ID weigh box and recording section. These heart rates were used in the calculation of the average and maximum work heart rate, energy expenditure, total cardiac cost of work (beats per minute), physiological cost of work (beats per minute) and workload classification according to Varghese et al.
After considering the operator's environment, there was also a need to evaluate the impact of the handling system on the cattle's stress level. The technical efficiency (TE) of the automated RFID and manual based systems was calculated using Equation 6.8 and found to be 0.85 and 0.54, respectively. The results include capital requirements, technical expertise, total heart costs of work and technical efficiencies of the two systems.
Cost-Benefit Analysis for RFID Based Technology Introduction
The important advantages of the RFID-based system are shown in the improved performance of the system, with reduced animal handling time and a smaller number of animals; stress, resulting in greater weight gain per day compared to the manual system. This means higher market prices and higher revenue for an RFID-based system compared to a manual system. The net effect is that the introduction of RFID-based technology results in improved profitability of 15%, as shown in Table 6.15.
Comparison of the two systems showed that the RFID-based system is a more viable option with a payback period of 3.5 years compared to the manual-based system's payback period of 10.5 years. In the cost benefit analysis undertaken for both systems, the assumption was made that the cash flow pattern remains constant for both systems during the evaluation period. The results included in Table 6.17 show that the introduction of RFID-based technology as an alternative to a manual-based system results in an increase in business profitability by 20% and shortens the payback period by 5 years.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Consulted with the project funder to establish other special requirements that needed to be met. An automation system incorporating RFID technology was installed on the design prototype components in conjunction with a manual by-pass. This was done to compare the functionality of the automated system and the conventional manual handling system.
This was indicated by the stability of the total treatment time of 11.8 seconds per animal for the automated system from day 6 to day 10 of the evaluation process. An analysis of processing time and labor requirements found that integrating automation reduces man-hours by 70%, impacting operational costs. This is an indication that the likelihood of the improvements observed in the system was not purely coincidental.
REFFERENCES
In: Proceedings of the 43rd Congress of the South African Society for Animal Science, Pretoria, South Africa, 499-501. Radio frequency identification (RFID) for animals - Tag and reader specifications for compatibility guidelines. In: Proceedings of the 43rd Congress of the South African Society for Animal Science, Pretoria, South Africa, 422-423.
Opinions of employees in the cattle, pig and sheep slaughter and processing sectors regarding aspects of the national animal identification system. Available at: http://www.thebeefsite.com/articles/821/radio-frequency-identification-for-beef-cattle.htm [Accessed 23/8/2009]. Effect of market facility design and animal handling procedures on bruising in cattle.
APPENDIX A: COMPLETE HANDLING SYSTEM DESIGN NOTES
APPENDIX B: DEVELOPED VIRTUAL DESIGN DRAWINGS
APPENDIX C: MODIFIED DRAWINGS FOR CONSTRUCTION
APPENDIX D: CONSTRUCTED CATTLE HANDLE SYSTEM
APPENDIX E: EVALUATION PROCESS AND OUTPUT DATA
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