Abstract
The aim of this project is to compare some of the state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms on the classification of steers finished in feedlots based on performance, carcass and meat quality traits. The precise classification of animals allows for fast, real-time decision making in animal food industry, such as culling or retention of herd animals. Beef production presents high variability in its numerous carcass and beef quality traits. Machine learning algorithms and software provide an opportunity to evaluate the interactions between traits to better classify animals. Four different treatment levels of wet distiller’s grain were applied to 97 Angus-Nellore animals and used as features for the classification problem. The C4.5 decision tree, Naïve Bayes (NB), Random Forest (RF) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Artificial Neural Network algorithms were used to predict and classify the animals based on recorded traits measurements, which include initial and final weights, sheer force and meat color. The top performing classifier was the C4.5 decision tree algorithm with a classification accuracy of 96.90%, while the RF, the MLP and NB classifiers had accuracies of 55.67%, 39.17% and 29.89% respectively. We observed that the final decision tree model constructed with C4.5 selected only the dry matter intake (DMI) feature as a differentiator. When DMI was removed, no other feature or combination of features was sufficiently strong to provide good prediction accuracies for any of the classifiers. We plan to investigate in a follow-up study on a significantly larger sample size, the reasons behind DMI being a more relevant parameter than the other measurements.
Evaluation of liquefaction potential based on CPT results using C4.5 decision tree
