Animal production, like crop production, economics exhibits narrow profit margins. This makes the growth, development, reproduction, and well-being of each animal critically important for a profitable and sustainable enterprise. Current technologies allow producers to monitor individual animal feed consumption, feedlot movement, temperature, lameness, milk production, meat composition and quality, and weight gain among others—often without any human intervention or presence.
Computer vision accompanied by artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to monitor and predict animal productivity and health. Because of climate-change related challenges, frequent or continuous air and water monitoring are also becoming important. This involves not only data collection, but also data analysis and possible particulate dispersion modeling or hydrologic modeling.
While animal tagging has been commonplace for decades, it is possible to attach electronic tags that can measure and record animal condition, such as temperature or heart rate. Elevated temperature can signal estrus onset or a possible disease condition. Electronic tags can also be used for identification and marketing purposes.
Many feeding, measuring, and monitoring systems have been developed or proposed for aquacultural applications. Investments in animal care and feeding during the course of each animal's production life are significant. New tools and technologies can help producers capture a return on that investment.