Tactical management is the application of various electronic, systems, and statistical tools to automate and improve day-to-day and minute-by-minute decision making by people wherever they are. I have been studying and working with new tools for electronic measurement and real-time data analysis in animal agriculture since the mid-eighties. Equipment I've worked with includes monitoring and record real-time environments in agricultural facilities, radio-frequency identification systems (RFID) for measuring individual animal feed intake and weight, and handheld portable data devices. Tactical Animal Management (TAM) integrates data from these and other new devices to make decisions in real-time in the barn for specific animals based on the animal’s particular needs. Tactical management applies the same tools to other processes, including biological production, manufacturing, facilities management, and even teaching.
Tactical Management works at a lower level than strategic management. Databases, spreadsheets, financial packages, and management packages all provide useful information that can be reviewed to benchmark an operation and help plan new strategies for improving production. Tactical management implements strategies by providing the necessary information at the times and places where decisions need to be made. While a good strategy might identify capital investments for production, tactical management would use knowledge about an ongoing production process to maintain and improve a product "in process." An example from animal production would be monitoring temperature, the expected weather, the animals’ present weight, growth and consumption and adjusting feeds accordingly to get better performance rather than just following a fixed feeding plan. Within hog production, systems to collect all of the listed information to make such decisions are available, but the state of the art is still to follow a fixed feeding plan. Even following a simple plan of fixed amounts of each feed ration per pig can require better tactical management systems to track present feed levels, identify how many animals are in each feeding group, and support ordering, scheduling, delivering, and recording actual feed deliveries. As good control of simple feeding systems can be demonstrated with charts or tactical records, then designing and implementing better feeding strategies can be attempted. My goal is to help people develop appropriate tactical management tools and practices to develop new and improve existing production capabilities.
Electronic Sow Feeding (ESF). Female pigs (sows) required different amounts of feed depending on their age, their current body condition (overweight or thin), and their stage of pregnancy. ESF allows sows to live in larger group pen, and still feeds each sow individually according to her needs. The computerized ESF records can also be reviewed to identify which animals need special attention. Automatic sorting and spray marking options on ESF stations simplifies individual identification, allowing the animal caretakers to provide each animal the special attention required.
Electronic Estrus Detection (EED). Identifying which sows are ready to be bred is one of the most difficult and most important jobs in pig production. EED will monitor how often and how long sows visit boars (male hogs). An increase in the number or time spent with the boar can help identify sows that are in estrus and are ready to be bred. An 8% improvement in estrus detection like we showed at the Osborne Demonstration Farm could produce nearly 5000 additional piglets per year on a 2400 sow farm.
RFID and remote data access. Individual record-keeping and the boom in personal electronics have created new options for information collection and availability. We used Osborne Industries e-Log® systems with integrated data-entry/data reporting systems and RFID readers to manage data at the Osborne Demonstration Farm. Other companies also provide RFID readers (or bar-code readers for "clean" applications) and data communications equipment for widely available consumer PDAs. Of course, the equipment used in hog barns and cattle feedlots have special requirements for ease of use while handling animals and resistance to shock, water, manure, and corrosive aerial environments.
Automatic Pig Weighing. Automatic weighing of is based on the simple premise that accurate sorting of market hogs can improve load uniformity and reduce labor. Automatic weighing can be greatly improved if individual RFID is used to track individual animal weights. While any single measurement will exhibit considerable variability, the use of statistical regression on a large number of sequential weights can significantly improve the accuracy and precision of the predicted weight for an individual animal. The longer term tracking of group weights and variation of animals within a group can be used to improve both strategic and tactical planning and management. Individual weights and growth rates can also be used to identify and sort animals for different feeding regimes that can be tailored to better match animal requirements. The adoption of such “split-feeding” and other advanced applications of automatic weighing systems represents the state of the art for current development in this area.
Recent developments in RFID, personal computing devices, telecommunications equipment, and internet-based data sharing are creating enormous opportunities to develop and apply new tactical management systems. Some systems, like automatic dairy cow milking and automatic animal feeding and weighing systems, have substantial mechanical sophistication. Other systems that hold just as much promise are small software systems that interact with other measurement systems. These new systems require an understanding of the behavior of the people applying the systems, the biology and behavior plants or animals they might work with, and engineering expertise to implement the new system. TAM is an exciting new field that awaits your contribution!
A listing of Tactical Animal Management Projects web sites.
Contact the author (email: rkorthal a olivet.edu) for more information or a copy of a paper published in the July issue of ASAE (the society for engineering in agriculture, food, and biological systems) Resources magazine on different Tactical Animal Management projects going on throughout the world.
Sites on computers, RFID and RFID products, and electronics.