Abstract:
In order to automatically measure production performance indexes(feed intake, live weight and feed-conversion rate) of individual ducks in group culture, a real-time automated production performance testing system was designed in this paper. The system integrated multiple electronic measuring stations, which was composed of automatic weighing devices, automatic allocating devices, gate devices and intelligent controller. The relative errors between the electronic tag recognition rate, feed intake and body weight of the system and the actual measured values were tested. The results showed that the system was stable; the recognition rate of electronic tags for duck identification was 99.97%; the relative error of feed intake was within ±1%, and the relative error of live weight was within ±2.9%. The system could automatically measure number of meals, meal duration, feed intake, weight gain, and feed conversion rate of each duck under group-housing conditions. An individual duck with electronic tag tail number 77 was used as an example. During the test period of 23 days, the total number of meals of the duck was 323; the total meal duration was 12 h 43 min and 39 s; the total feed intake was 6.316 kg; the total weight gain was 3.125 kg, and the feed-conversion ratio was 2.02∶1. The results indicated that the system could automatically measure individual production performance of ducks in the case of group breeding, which had a good application prospect.