Broilers

We envision a benefit to tag broiler birds with individual identifiers, whether barcodes, QR or RFID to monitor growth, provide traceability records and gain valuable insights into the flock. With the rapid spread of avian influenzas, our CleanTrace system becomes an immediate traceability mechanism that can provide highly precise records of bird locations, movements and susceptibilities.

While the industry is working towards the adoption for more precise feeding technologies, we believe they are right around the corner. Professor Martin Zuidhof, a professor of poultry systems, modeling and precision feeding at the University of Alberta, has developed an automated broiler breeder feeding system that provides rations according to the needs of individual birds — hopefully bringing an end to the longstanding challenge of flock uniformity. In the system, each bird is outfitted with an RFID tag to identify it to a computer system with data about the bird’s ideal body weight. When it walks into the feeding area, it stands on a scale that allows the computer to determine how much the bird should be fed —more if it’s underweight, less if not — and the appropriate amount of feed is dispensed.