Smart Livestock Farming Solutions (Part 1)

and given the country’s information needs for training artificial intelligence models, generating information flow was among the primary goals of the Smart Animal Husbandry Committee (in the Knowledge-Based Association).

In order to continue the path and analyze the state of readiness of livestock farms regarding the implementation of smart systems, a questionnaire was prepared for this purpose in March 2024 and distributed among industrial livestock farms.

The 30-page report (which will be submitted gradually) is an analysis of the results of this questionnaire, which we hope will be an introduction to the digital transformation in this industry.

Initial results

1. Considering that the response rate in private or even public surveys is between 10% and 30%, a response rate of 22% is acceptable.
2. A high average time indicates that people answered the questions carefully and that the data collected is of good quality.
3. Responding to 100 ranchers is a good number to analyze and find patterns.
4. The number of responses using mobile phones can be considered an indication of the familiarity of livestock farmers with smart technologies.

• Type of ownership and organizational structure:

  • Most of the responding livestock farms were private (82% private, 13% semi-public, 3% cooperative, 2% public).
  • Also, in 59% of cases, the owner alone makes key decisions, while 41% have a more formal management structure (CEO and board of directors).

This indicates that most livestock farms are run by family or individual respondents.

• Milking equipment and milk quality:

  • About 65% of dairy farms have announced that they have industrial milking.
  • And 35% do not have industrial milking.
  • Almost half (47%) rely on the receiving laboratory (factory or milk collection center) to assess milk quality.
  • ۲۶% use independent laboratories outside the company ,
  • ۱۴% have an in-house laboratory in the livestock farm
  • And 13% do not conduct regular assessments at all.

This pattern suggests that quality monitoring capabilities are limited within livestock farms themselves, and many depend on outside sources for this work.

• Internet Status: Internet connectivity is important for modern management.

  • In the data, the stable internet status of 87% of livestock farms was at least average to good.
  • (۴۰% good, 39% average, only 13% bad and 8% excellent),
  • And mobile internet is not bad in 96% of cases (48% good, 40% average, 8% excellent, only 4% bad).

Overall, most farms have acceptable internet access, although excellent quality is rare. This shows that the communication infrastructure is available for many but needs improvement.

• Use of management software:

  • The results show that livestock management software (herd registration and management) has the greatest influence; about 70% of livestock farms use some kind of management software.
  • In contrast, other specialized software is less common:
    • Only 28% use paid software;
    • ۳۰% use diet and nutrition management software;
    • And only 13% have budgeting software.

This pattern shows that there is a technological gap in the areas of finance, nutrition, and budgeting on livestock farms, and many still manage these departments traditionally or with generic tools such as Excel.