Implementing just-in-time inventory management to address contextual operational issues: a case study of a commercial livestock farm in southern Nigeria

PurposeThis research focuses on the implementation of Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management, drawing on a case study of a commercial livestock farm located in a swampy area of southern Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopts a qualitative approach. Interviews and workshops were used for data collection.FindingsFindings from the study reveal that the commitment on the internal organisational members and skilful collaboration with supply chain partners are required for effective use of JIT, especially in an odd contextual situation such as the case in this study. This also justifies the embraced of additional cost of securing JIT inventory management practices such as the situation in the case study organisation that could not allow conventional inventory management.Originality/valueIt is suggested for further research to consider the topic from a mixed method approach as well as extend the focus on the possibility of legal regulations and government support to exceptional operational practices among organisations, especially those in the context of the food production sector, where this research was based.

Internet of Things Enabled Smart Animal Farm Prototype

Livestock plays very important economic, social and cultural roles in the well being of rural communities across the world. Quality environmental conditions, automation and monitoring are the key necessities of running a good and profitable livestock farm. Air quality, temperature of the surroundings and humidity play a major role while deciding the fan speeds of the exhaust System used in all aspects of livestock farming. Another important part of livestock production is increasing incubation speeds of eggs by performing artificial incubation. It is a requirement to maintain the temperature at a constant value in this system. This paper describes two mutually exclusive Fuzzy Logic algorithm-based systems to automate the exhaust system and an artificial egg incubator. The other important part of a livestock farm is production of milk and milk products. It is required to monitor the health of cows by overseeing their activities at any point of time. This can be done by determining and monitoring the activities performed by the cow. This paper describes a simple Deep Learning Model to classify the activities of a cow broadly as standing, walking or grazing. The Exhaust and the Incubator system are controlled and monitored using Internet of Things (IOT) System using a native web application developed using the Flask framework.

Energy Self-Sufficient Livestock Farm as the Example of Agricultural Hybrid Off-Grid System

Contemporary agriculture has become very energy-intensive and mainly uses electricity, which is needed for technological processes on livestock farms. Livestock faeces are burdensome for the environment due to the release of methane into the atmosphere. This article presents the concept of a self-sufficient livestock farm as an off-grid energy circuit that is a part of the agricultural process. The key idea is to obtain an energy flow using the concept of a smart valve to achieve a self-sufficient energy process based on a biogas plant, renewable energy sources, and energy storage. During the production process, a livestock farm produces large amounts of waste in the form of grey and black manure. On the one hand, these products are highly harmful to the environment, but on the other, they are valuable input products for another process, i.e., methane production. The methane becomes the fuel for cogeneration generators that produce heat and electricity. Heat and electricity are partly returned to the main farming process and partly used by residents of the area. In this way, a livestock farm and the inhabitants of a village or town can become energy self-sufficient and independent of national grids. The idea described in this paper shows the process of energy production combining a biogas plant, renewable energy sources, and an energy storage unit that enable farmland to become fully self-sufficient through the energy flow between all constituents of the energy cycle being maintained by a smart valve.

Measurements of the background methane concentration with a remote lidar on kilometer routes in the Moscow region.

Local path measurements of the background methane concentration in the northeast of the Moscow Region were carried out using a remote active lidar based on a powerful Raman amplifier of optical radiation in the wavelength range of ~ 1650 nm. The radiation power in the pulse was about 3 W. The trasses were selected taking into account possible anomalous deviations of the background of atmospheric methane and included forests, gasified buildings with natural gas, a peat lake, a road with heavy traffic, a livestock farm and a solid waste landfill. The length of the distances ranged from ~ 0.6 km to ~ 3.15 km. The highest background concentration of methane was observed over a livestock farm, over a highway and a solid waste landfill, which confirms the fact of an increase in gas emissions over these facilities. Also higher methane levels were observed above of the gasified homes and the heavy traffic road, indicating a possible increase in the number of vehicles using methane as fuel and a possible leak of natural gas from pipelines supplying buildings with natural gas.

Perception of agroforestry adopter and non-adopter on volcano risk and hazard: a case in Mt. Merapi, Java, Indonesia

Rozaki Z, Rahmawati N, Wijaya O, Khoir IA, Senge M, Kamarudin MF. 2021. Perception of agroforestry adopter and non-adopter on volcano risk and hazard: a case in Mt. Merapi, Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 3829-3837. Agroforestry is an agricultural system that many people use in mountainous areas. Some experts have proven that this system can become the mitigation strategy in volcano areas. This study analyzes the risk and hazard perception of agroforestry adopters and non-adopters in the Mt. Merapi prone area. 139 agroforestry adopters and 130 non-adopters were randomly taken from four different areas in Mt. Merapi. Results show that both adopters and non-adopters show different perceptions regarding hazards and risk. The effectiveness of agroforestry practice for mitigation strategies needs to be studied more. The awareness of hazards and risks in the Mt. Merapi prone area is essential to save more lives during the eruption. The challenge is how to persuade agroforestry adopters and non-adopters to flee when the big eruption comes. Even though they flee, they still insist on returning home to take care of their livestock, farm, and protect properties. Mitigation education is needed; also, the infrastructure is important in supporting the mitigation efforts.

Research trend of antimicrobial resistance in livestock farm of China in 21 century: a bibliometric analysis.

Aiming to reveal the trends in AMR research in poultry and farm of China in 21 century, this bibliometric study carry out through the articles found in the Web of Science database. Search terms includes the keywords about AMR in livestock farm of China and excluded that about marine, vegetable, manure compost and humankind medical treatment. A summary quantity of 276 articles were included, publish between 2008 and 2020. It's evident that a growing research interest focus on this domain in the last decades with annual percentage growth rate is 30.09%, and 93.12% of the research articles (257 papers) was published after 2011. Through this period, the research categories recently became more diverse and focused on "One Health". The most published and cited documents were from the China Agriculture University, and research institutions in five provinces of east-costal China provided about 60% of publications. A frequency analysis of keywords showed a comprehensive ascendant of keywords about "prevalence", "poultry", "AMR", "genes", and "identification". The most common five research topic couples were Enterobacteriaceae and identification, diversity and China, strains and genes, AMR and prevalence. This pioneering study supplied a nationwide overview of spatial and temporal trends of research related to AMR in livestock farm of China. In view of the enhance tendency during the last years, it's estimated that scientific research will increase in the future. Unearthing scientific areas that should be explored in the future is key to design new strategic agendas for AMR research in livestock farm animals and to inform funding programs.