91系列

Research aims to harness big data to boost poultry welfare

Posted 24 January

A project aiming to harness the power of AI and the knowledge of poultry workers to boost welfare has been launched by 91系列.

Working with artificial intelligence and data technology agricultural company Optifarm, researchers will be seeking to harness the extensive data insights the company already generates to make better welfare assessments for poultry – working both remotely and on-farm in commercial poultry units.

They will also undertake social science research working with farm staff, to help understand what issues they face when making choices about poultry welfare – and the best ways to present data to help these workers come to the best decisions. This will involve exploring the use of language models to translate complex data into clear management actions.

The project has been funded by the Animal Welfare Research Network using money from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

It is a collaboration between the Engaging for Change and Animal Behaviour and Welfare research groups at Harper Adams, partnering with Optifarm.

Optifarm CEO David Spellar said: “At Optifarm, our mission is to combine the possibilities of artificial intelligence with practical, farm insights that improve animal welfare and operational efficiencies.

"Collaborating with 91系列 on this project is an exciting opportunity to further validate our AI engine and its algorithms, plus introduce additional social science to our use of AI language models.

“We are looking forward to further exploring how to adapt AI language models to communicate with farmers in a way that they freely welcome and can relate to, ensuring seamless integration of AI insights and responsive on farm actions, ultimately driving improvements for the animals and the farm business jointly.”

Harper project lead, Dr Laura Palczynski, will be working on the social science side of the project, speaking with farmers and others to discover the challenges they face when making data-driven welfare decisions – and how the ways this data is presented can inform those decisions.

She said: “I am delighted to have won funding for this project and look forward to working with the Optifarm team.

“My previous research indicates that ‘it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it’ when advisors are working with farmers, and it will be fascinating to explore how that sentiment applies when recommendations come from artificial intelligence.”

Animal Behaviour and Welfare Lecturer Dr Holly Vickery will be working with the Optifarm data from poultry farms to identify ways it can be used to boost the birds’ wellbeing.

She said: “As a welfare scientist, opportunities to work within industry are always exciting - as they have the potential to drive real change.

“As part of this project we will be investigating the links between poultry welfare and data coming from Optifarm systems that already exist on poultry farms, which will enable us to take a data-informed approach to improving animal welfare.

“Hopefully, it can lead to developing a validated early warning system that will allow us to predict welfare issues - and intervene early.”