BrightAnimal: Multidisciplinary Approach to Practical and Acceptable Precision Livestock Farming for SMEs in Europe and world-wide

Project information
BrightAnimal will contribute to economically, socially and environmentally sustainable development by outlining a practical and acceptable methodology for precision livestock farming. To achieve this goal, BrightAnimal has the following mission: To produce a framework for European and non-European small and medium enterprises on effective and acceptable precision livestock farming and to create an international, interdisciplinary network for further development and dissemination. The main activity and achievement of BrightAnimal will be the elaboration of a book on effective Precision Livestock Farming in Europe and world-wide with special consideration of small and medium enterprises. The book aims at describing current and near-future techniques in PLF, especially taking into account both the practicality for SMEs as well as their acceptability (in the broader sense). The book will also try to set the scene for future developments. As the second component of the framework, BrightAnimal will produce best precision livestock farming practices (BPLFP) in a series of “problematic” areas such as aquaculture, beef, sheep and chicken. These best practice guides will be released to the public domain in the form of booklets. A third deliverable of the project will be a practical showcase activity showing the Good Practices in action in the European Centre of Excellence of Automatic Identification and Data Capture in the UK. BrightAnimal will organise interdisciplinary conferences for opinion exchange and cross-disciplinary discussions. It is of great importance to include opinions from outside Europe. We have been pleased to accept partners from the following ICPC countries: Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil and China and from Australia as a third country. Other non-funded partners from third countries will also join the project.
Project results: 
As the main result, the project has published a 200 page book on 'Acceptable and practical precision livestock farming'. The book has been distributed to key researchers and institutions and will be made available for download as an e-book. It has a novel structure and should appeal to both people wanting to get an overview over the different subjects covered as well as to specialists. Project Results: The project has delivered in particular: 1. a project book 'Practical and acceptable precision livestock farming' which was officially presented at the Fifth European Conference on PLF (EC-PLF) in Prague, 11 to 14 July 2011 2. a PLF wiki on as a basis for good PLF practices under http://brightanimal.pbworks.com 3. a leaflet for farmers on PLF together with a five minute smart farming diagnostic 4. a network of professionals from academia and industry, including from other EU projects. We believe that we have provided what could be the seed for a successful implementation of PLF. Especially our recommendations as published in the project book are believed to be very valuable for the sector. They have been discussed with stakeholders and were presented in detail at the Fifth EC-PLF conference in Prague, 10 to 13 July 2011. We hope that we could contribute to an area in which we fully believe: the animal and farm-centric view of livestock farming is the key to a successful industry that is in balance with requirements for health, welfare and the environment.
Project partners: 
FOODREG TECHNOLOGY SL Spain
SMART IDENTIFICATION LIMITED UK
NOFIMA AS Norway
BITLAND ENTERPRISE APS Denmark
EESTI MAAULIKOOL Estonia
Institute of Quality standards & Testing Technology for Agro-products, CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES China
CONSUMER GOODS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA South Africa
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRO-BASED INDUSTRY Malaysia
KASETSART UNIVERSITY Thailand
EMPRESA BRASILEIRA DE PESQUISA AGROPECUARIA Brazil
DEPARTMENT OF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES AND RESOURCES SOUTH AUSTRALIA Australia
AALBORG UNIVERSITET Denmark
Project dates: 
May 2009 to April 2011
Contact
Contact project
Contact person: 
Heiner Lehr
Contact organisation: 
FOODREG TECHNOLOGY SL Spain
Funding
Funding agency: 
European Commission - Seventh Framework Programme
Grant: 
k€997
Total budget: 
k€1146