Applicable technologies for Controlled Environment Systems (CES) in livestock production

Abstract

Controlled environment systems (CES) include such diverse applications as buildings for indoor aquaculture, intensive livestock and laboratory animals. The challenges of pushing the design envelope for CES include our ability to quantify important engineering aspects of the surrounding environment such as external loads which affect design and operation, and the development of information gathering, information processing and dynamic control systems to enable the proper functioning and management of a CES. Perhaps more challenging, is the continued need for current, relevant design data for how occupants of CES react with, and to, their environment. There is a range of diverse technologies available, developed in many instances by other industries, which can be readily incorporated and utilised in CES. In this paper two potential technologies which can be used as components of CES are discussed; 1) economical optimisation of livestock production, and 2) fuzzy logic control systems. Integration of such tools into a precision livestock farming methodology, which we characterise as information rich CES, is critically needed. Precision livestock farming principles need to be incorporated into information rich CES systems, if livestock industries aim to remain economically viable, socially responsible and ecologically sustainable.