Internet of things in animal feed production process: taking feed production to the next level

The major cost of animal production is attributed to feed with a recorded 60 to 80% of the total production cost. For efficient and sustainable animal production, special attention needs to be given to feed production. Feed production involves many processes. This includes feed intake, storage, grinding or cutting, mixing, and transportation. The improper management of these processes as currently recorded in many feed production factories around the world has led to increased production cost and invariably cost of animal products that are vital to human nutrition and many industries. There are well-developed and adopted algorithms and systems for animal feed formulation and production. However, most of these systems are not synchronized, thus leading to inefficiency in the total system. The internet of things (IoT) which is about creating an internet within a factory will be beneficial in connecting all the complex processes in animal feed production. In this study, we propose a smart factory system where all the processes from receiving raw materials, to storage, mixing, packaging, batching, loading out, and delivery to the farms are connected and data is fed back to a central server. This would enable operators to see in real-time the entire process and improve decision-making.