PARTNER FEATURE ▶▶▶
Animal feed sector ready for the digital wave
The agricultural business is changing. Companies are increasingly growing and professionalising, while seeing a growing demand in their markets for sustainability, welfare and transparency. Precision farming is part of this change. Especially in the animal nutrition industry.
BY ROEL LEFERINK, DIGITAL DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER NUTRIOPT AT TROUW NUTRITION
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Farmers increas- ingly use digital tools to access farm data and insights.
igitalisation is designed to make our lives easier and more fun. We have experienced this in the digitalisation of vehicles, household devices, en- tertainment electronics and health devices. While
non-living things become ‘smart’, human beings become more efficient and aware. The digitalisation journey is hap- pening in all types of industries, each having their own pace of adoption, needs and focus. We also see differences in the impact digitalisation can make. In agriculture, the impact of digitalisation is − and will continue to be − enormous. And we see this happening throughout the food production chain: from farmers to animal feed producers, raw material traders and food processors.
Agriculture: a wealth of data The reason why the impact of digitalisation in agriculture has so much potential is the wealth of data gathered through the
massive volumes involved in in food production. We produce over 1 billion tonnes of animal feed per year, which allows ani- mals to produce 532 million tons of milk, 76.7 million tons of eggs, 137 million tonnes of poultry meat and many other ani- mal products. This creates a wealth of input and output data regarding animal performance, nutrition, feed quality and more. However, in 2016, McKinsey & Company named agricul- ture the least digitised of all sectors. You can debate whether this is true, considering that the agricultural sector has fully embraced technology in recent decades, as reflected in the adoption of farm robotics and sensors, automated feeding systems, high-speed feed analysis equipment, automatic sam- pling and more. But true digitalisation is not the same as using a certain type of technology or machine. Digitalisation evolves more around data gathering, data processing, data visualis- ation and insights. And in the quest to produce cost-effective and sustainable diets, while producing healthy and productive animals, we need actionable data and insights more than ever. At the same time, digitalisation is easier to implement, due to more 5G networks, cloud-based opportunities and the appli- cation of artificial intelligence in agriculture. The challenges in agriculture, in combination with the availability and scalability of new technologies and data processing tools, almost seem to create a perfect storm to let digitalisation really take off. Es- pecially in animal nutrition.
Animal nutrition is becoming more precise We can certainly state that agriculture is at a crossroads when it comes to digitalisation. Being at a crossroads means you have to decide which direction you take. Agricultural compa- nies and newcomers in the industry (think of agtech compa- nies) all make their own decisions, but all of the road signs have one direction written on them: precision farming. Preci- sion farming is applying the right measure at the right time. In animal nutrition we often talk about precision feeding, which is seen as a crucial part of a total set of precision farm- ing practices. Precision feeding allows nutritionists to be more efficient with raw materials, better match the needs of the animal’s requirements, reduce feed losses, increase feed efficiency and optimise output of meat, milk and eggs. A change in the dosage of minerals or protein content, for ex- ample, can make a huge difference in terms of economics, but also when it comes to animal health and welfare.
16 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 29, No. 4, 2021
PHOTO: TROUW NUTRITION
PHOTO: TROUW NUTRITION
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