A world-leading artificial intelligence system to monitor free range chickens is set to revolutionise the Australian egg and poultry industry.
Developed at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Botany campus the AI system will allow egg farmers to keep an even closer eye on how their chickens are performing from both an animal welfare and production perspective.
Funded by Australian Eggs, the UTS will soon trial the AI camera system in three free range egg farms in NSW, and at one in Victoria and one in Queensland.
Dr Jian Zhang told The Land that the development would relieve egg farmers from the burden of having to check countless hours of cctv images. The AI technology will alert them instead to changes in behaviours such as gathering, smothering or long times on the ground, that will help pinpoint disease, feeding issues or danger.
It has taken almost two years of research to get to the trial stage, and the world-leading technology will have major time benefits for the free range egg industry and keep consumers confident that chickens are monitored for welfare constantly. The expanding 5G mobile system will also power up the AI technology in delivery of quick time data.
Dr Zhang, Director of the Multimedia Data Analytics Lab in the Global Big Data Technologies Centre at UTS, said he was excited the AI technology had been finally finessed that would save egg farmers a lot of time and money.
An initial trial of four cameras on 8000 hens had shown great results. "The farm in this project that is trialling the technology has an average of 8,000 hens spread across multiple sheds, and it's difficult for farm staff to continuously monitor hen behaviour," Dr Zhang said.
"Cage-free hens have greater freedom to roam and forage, however there is a risk that they can flock together and 'pile-up', which can result in hens being smothered. While it is not common, if a pile-up does occur, currently there are no warning system to alert farmers that this might be occurring," he said.
Rowan McMonnies the Managing Director of Australian Eggs said : "This important investment in AI-technology can not only lead to happier, healthier and more productive hens, but also improve farm management and reduce costs,"
"This technology is going to be a game-changer for the industry and the systems current capabilities are only the beginning. There are plans in the work to create a mobile app, expand the trial across multiple more farms in the coming months and, implement this revolutionary technology on a wider scale across other agriculture farming systems."