Prediction of litter performance in lactating sows using machine learning, for precision livestock farming - INRAE - Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Computers and Electronics in Agriculture Année : 2022

Prediction of litter performance in lactating sows using machine learning, for precision livestock farming

Résumé

Predicting litter performance in lactating sows is an essential step towards the development of decision support systems for precision feeding in lactating sows. Numerous factors affecting litter performance have been described in literature. However, predictive models working on-farm in real time are not available. The main objectives of this research was to (i) explore 4 different machine learning strategies, and (ii) identify the best supervised learning algorithm in order to obtain reliable predictions of litter performance. This study was carried out with data obtained from 6 experimental farms over the last 20 years. Algorithms were trained to predict the litter weight at weaning using a set of 4 numeric and 3 categorical features, and a method for predicting secondary litter performance and nutrient output in milk from the predicted litter weight at weaning was evaluated. To evaluate the reliability of predictions within each farm, the mean error per farm (MEf) and the mean absolute percentage error per farm (MAPEf) were computed. The best performance for the prediction of litter weight at weaning was obtained with an ensemble algorithm with farm-level training and testing (MEf = −0.14 kg; MAPEf = 9.01%), but performance with simple linear regression was very close (MAPEf = 9.30%). Learning across all farms only achieved comparable results with the neural networks algorithm, but at higher computational costs. The method for predicting secondary litter performance and nutrient output from the predictions of litter weight at weaning reveals that the MEf remains close to 0, and that the MAPEf only increases by a few percentage points. This study confirms the effect of numerous factors known in the literature to affect litter performance, such as litter size and parity of sows, but also revealed huge variations between farms. According to this study, reliable predictions could be obtained with interpretable supervised algorithms trained at farm level, with features that can be easily measured on-farm. This study thus shows that on-farm data are necessary to accurately train models and make reliable predictions at farm level. These predictions could be used by decision support systems in order to develop precision feeding approaches in lactating sows.

Dates et versions

hal-03685384 , version 1 (02-06-2022)

Identifiants

Citer

Raphaël Gauthier, Christine Largouët, Jean-Yves Dourmad. Prediction of litter performance in lactating sows using machine learning, for precision livestock farming. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2022, 196, pp.106876. ⟨10.1016/j.compag.2022.106876⟩. ⟨hal-03685384⟩
37 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More