Progress towards the development of an integrated management system for broiler chicken production

Any livestock production system can be represented as a set of complex, variable, interconnected processes each of which is under independent open-loop control. The solution to the problems caused by this type of control is to introduce management systems in which the controllers of the various processes are integrated so that the production system is managed as a whole, with as many of the controllers as possible being closed loop, to counter output drift, and incorporating process models to accommodate process inconsistency. Some progress is being made in this direction for the case of broiler chicken production. This paper describes research that was carried out as part of a programme of work that had the overall aim of developing a prototype closed-loop, model-based, real time, system for the integrated control of broiler growth and pollutant emissions. The part of the programme that is reported here had the objectives of demonstrating the performance of a novel growth controller and of simultaneously monitoring aerial pollutant emission responses to nutritional inputs.