Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
return on investment and net income of the
whole production system and not just each
one of its parts. It should be expected that
these models arrive at non-traditional man-
agement strategies because the models are
looking at the enterprise on an integrated
(linked) basis instead of a dis-integrated
(de-linked) basis, which is common in the
industry today. This section will list alpha-
betically some of the companies providing
these poultry business models and their ser-
vices that are currently being used by the
poultry industry worldwide.
Using artificial intelligence techniques and
robust data analysis tools, such as SAS En-
terprise Miner and IBM SPSS Data Mining,
customized models are generated for each
company to identify features that reveal
new information applicable and relevant
to  decision makers. Techniques such as
decision trees, neural networks and fuzzy
logic have been applied. The decision tree
technique has been used, for example, to
evaluate the incubation process (Lima and
Rodrigues, 2010). The artificial intelligence
techniques can also identify factors to re-
programme the electronic controllers in
poultry houses to adjust the levels of oper-
ation of all devices seeking maximum effi-
ciency with lower energy costs. To estimate
the environmental requirements, the analyses
use the daily physiological changes of the
flocks, fluctuations in weather conditions
and the characteristics of the equipment
used for environmental control in farms
(e.g. fans, exhaust fans, air inlets, heaters, etc.).
AgroInfo TI
This company based in Campinas, São
Paulo, Brazil, has offered services to the
poultry industry since the year 2000 ( www.
agroinfoti.com.br ). Its tools and services are
focused into two groups, the WOVO System
and Artiicial Intelligence analyses. The
WOVO system is a tool for the egg produc-
tion industry. It is a management tool that
includes factors from pullet chicks to egg
production, including schedules to manage
activities, like health monitoring and vac-
cinations, until the end of the flocks. From a
good track record and parameterization of
the system, users can make predictions for
egg production, including size classification
and the number of eggs expected weekly,
and, in this way, they can plan the most ap-
propriate dates for performing activities
such as housing and critical management
practices. Likewise, with forecasting of egg
and hen sale prices the system aids in iden-
tifying the best time to sell the flock. The
management system also helps to plan feed
inventory. Based on records of current and
predictions of future flocks, the system
guides the purchase of raw materials for
feed production. The animal health moni-
toring system can aid in gaining knowledge
about flock immunity. From serological ana-
lyses, common to poultry farms, the system
quickly generates dispersion curves that
allow decision makers to check the level of
exposure and optimize disease vaccination
programmes, ensuring both flock health
condition and that the vaccine programmes
save medicines and have improved efficiency.
CyberAgra
This is a company based in Richmond,
Virginia, USA ( www.cyberagra.com) that has
been offering software to the poultry indus-
try for more than 15 years. For the poultry
industry, CyberAgra offers two software
packages for integrated layer and broiler
companies. The CyberAgra Egg Layer Enter-
prise™ and the CyberAgra Poultry Enter-
prise™ v13.01.0330 are the latest major
releases for fully integrated poultry enter-
prise record keeping systems. They include
either production and accounting of pullet,
egg layer and feedmill operations, or pro-
duction and accounting of pullets, breeders,
broilers/turkeys, hatchery, processing plant
and feedmill operations. New features in
this release include several resource optimi-
zations for faster input/output, W3C con-
formance for all major browsers and a new
default intuitive user interface for easy
training and implementation. This software
uses a based costing method, which directly
traces field history costs related to a specific
product, thus providing a more accurate
margin calculation than Enterprise Resource
Planning systems.
 
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