Several faculty and graduate students from Iowa State Department of Animal Science at the US Precision Livestock Farming Conference (USPLF2023) in Knoxville, Tennessee and NC1211 multistate meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee May 21-24.
Juan Steibel, Will Taylor and James Koltes presented research findings as seminars at the meeting, which you can find here.
Juan Steibel, James Koltes, Rich Gates and the late Ken Stalder were meeting program organizers involved in putting on the meeting over the past year. Both James and Juan served as session chairs at the meeting as well. Juan also provided leadership in the overall meeting organization and selection committee for USPLF2025, which will be held in Nebraska. Prior to the formal conference, Juan organized a meeting as the current chair of the NC1211 multistate group (Precision Management of Animals for Improved Care, Health, and Welfare of Livestock and Poultry), which held it’s annual meeting jointly with this conference. https://www.nimss.org/projects/view/participant_list/18777
The meeting was exciting as the field of PLF is moving rapidly. Many applications of image, sound and wearable sensor data in research were presented as well as exciting new farm applications of PLF in several species. Sensor measures are rapidly developing as phenotypes for application in overall management, genetics, welfare and animal health.
A summary of the talks presented by the Iowa State animal science attendees include:
- Juan Steibel presented:
- Progress report on the coordinated innovation network for advancing computer vision in precision livestock farming. Authors: J. P. Steibel, T. Brown-Brandl, G. J. M. Rosa, J. M. Siegford, E. Psota, M. Benjamin, D. Morris, J. R. R. Dorea and T. Norton
- Publicly available datasets for computer vision in precision livestock farming: A review. Authors: J. Han, J. R. Dorea, T. Norton, A. Parmiggiani, D. Morris, J. Siegford and J. P. Steibel*
- PhD student Will Taylor presented:
- Digital imaging techniques to assess welfare at a cull sow harvest facility. Authors W. Taylor*, J. Steibel, S. Pandey and K. Stalder
- James Koltes presented:
- Could wearable sensor data be helpful in identifying more feed efficient dairy cattle. Authors: J. E. Koltes*, L. M. James, Mary S. Mayes, P. J. Gorden, K. Hayman, B. M. Goetz, L. H. Baumgard and C.J. Siberski-Cooper
Other presentations featuring Iowa State animal science and the Iowa Pork Industry Center include:
- Swine industry stakeholder perceptions of precision livestock farming technology: A Q-methodology study. B. E. Akinyemi, B. Vigors, S. P. Turner, F. Akaichi, M. E. Benjamin, A. K. Johnson, M. D. Pairis-Garcia, D. W. Rozeboom, J. P. Steibel, D. P. Thompson, C. Zangaro and J. M. Siegford
- Estimating body weight of individual beef heifers using point-cloud reconstruction and machine learning. G. Li, J. T. Mulliniks, R. S. Gates and Y. Xiong
- Field implementation of forecasting models for predicting nursery mortality in a Midwestern US swine production system. E. S. Magalhaes, D. Zhang, C. Wang, P. Thomas, C. A. A. Moura, D. J. Holtkamp, G. Trevisan, C. J., Rademacher, G. S. Silva and D. C. L. Linhares,
- Characterizing spatiotemporal and three-dimensional locomotive behaviors of individual broilers for the three-point gait scoring system. G. Li, R. S. Gates, M. M. Meyer and E. A. Bobeck