The vast majority of animal feed outages are caused by bin slide management errors — not running out of feed on site, according to new research by BinSentry and HANOR.
A year-long study tracked out-of-feed events at 100 HANOR hog barns using BinSentry’s 3D optical sensors and AI-powered software technology. The study uncovered the majority of feed outages were due to bin slide management mistakes — where the slide on a full bin wasn’t opened after another bin was emptied.
“Sites experiencing the most out-of-feed events saw feed conversion ratios (FCRs) 7 basis points higher, costing $3.15 per pig, compared to sites with zero outages. That’s about $4,400 per barn of annual opportunity,” BinSentry said in a release.
For the first time ever, these results explain a whole new category of feed outages and a measurable correlation between out-of-feed events, FCR and the bottom line of producers.
“Before now, the industry was unable to identify a direct correlation between feed outages and FCR — we knew it must exist, but we just couldn’t find it,” Ben Allen, BinSentry CEO, said in a release. “It turns out we were missing 80% of the problem because we didn’t have any reliable way to see what was going on inside the feed bins. Now we do.”
BinSentry explained that it’s technology allows producers to precisely track feed bin levels and optimize feed management in real time while eliminating the need for unreliable and dangerous manual inventory checks.
The company’s new Out-of-Feed Insights dashboard analyzes the sensor data with advanced algorithms and AI technology to detect and identify out-of-feed issues. This allows producers to monitor activity in all their barns, track the data over time and improve the weakest performers in their operation through the use of automated notifications.
“Feed conversion ratios are one of the most important metrics for animal producers,” Mauricio Diaz, president of HANOR, said in a release. “Being able to see and address all feed issues is a key component to lowering feed conversion ratios, which lowers costs and increases sustainability.”
The HANOR case study confirmed that nearly 80% of out-of-feed events in the study were caused by feed bin slide management errors, while only 20% were due to running out of feed.
While this study is focused on pork, work under way with poultry producers is expected to generate similar results, Allen said.
“Producers are fighting every day to improve by fractions of a point of FCR, but it’s so hard to find those savings,” Allen said in a release. “This study shows the fastest way to lower your FCR is managing bin slide issues at your barns. We’ve identified this giant category of feed outages that nobody knew was there, and it’s costing producers real money every single day.”
