The Agro Management and Control System for modern egg production

amacs – the Agro Management and Control System for permanent data acqulocation in the world

amacs is Big Dutchman’s innovative Management andControl System for modern egg production. Its software isbased on current browser and web technology.Thanks to leading edge communication technologies,amacs allows permanent data acqusition, control andmonitoring of both traditional and alternative layer housesin real time from virtually any location in the world.All farms, even if they are located at different places, can

be controlled and monitored from a single central PC.Additional features include the ability to graphically visual-ize all house-related measuring and production data aswell as to transmit web cam pictures from the house inreal time. It goes without saying that alarm messages viae-mail or SMS to mobile phone are also included in theperformance range of this new system.

Transparent house = transparent production – no problem thanks to amacs

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Thanks to amacs, all layer houses, even if at differentplaces, can be controlled and monitored from a singlecentral PC. Depending on the specific requirements, upto four functional areas (climate, production, eggcollection, manure drying) of every house can be

controlled and monitored. amacs sets entirely new stan-dards for computer-controlled management systemsthanks to its extraordinary flexibility in the field of dataacquisition, data transfer, visualizations and tabulatedor graphical data processing.

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Use of network technologies and leading edge communications technologies

amacs – a management system consisting of modular hardware & software components

Hardware: one basic unit and 4 intelligent modules

Optimized house control consists of onebasic unit each, combined with up to 4intelligent modules. The modules neces-sary for a specific functional area areconnected to the respective basic unit ofeach house. Moreover, the basic unit pro-vides additional display, web cam andEthernet connections. The Ethernet is usedto transmit data from the individual basicunits to the farm PC, from where they arefurther transferred via telephone connec-tion or Internet to the central PC in the farm office.

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uisition, real-time control and monitoring of layer houses, from virtually any

All advantages at a glance) Monitoring and control of the houses in real time

=> whenever the farm manager changes the com-puter settings, the changes take effect immediatelyin the house;

) Central data storage and processing per animal; comparison with reference data stored in the system;

) Integrated log book and report system;

) Alarm system via e-mail and SMS respectively;

) Permanent visualization of house data on your PC;

) Easy choice of different languages per mouse click;

) Use of a web cam to transmit photos directly from the house (optional);

) High degree of flexibility thanks to different interfaces for your own data processing;

) Very stable, Linux-based system with separate control in the house; modern glass fiber network technology helps to prevent malfunctions caused by over voltage.

The basic unit as well as the intelligent modules arenecessary for the control of the 4 different functional areas– climate, production, egg collection and manure drying –

of each individual house. The basic unit and the modulesare integrated into a control box, which will be constructedaccording to the customer’s specific requirements.

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The functional area Climate comprises the control of exhaust and fresh air, heating and cooling as well as humidification.By means of special sensors, which measure

the outside and the house temperature, amacs deter-mines the degree of ventilation needed. All commonventilation systems, from transverse to tunnel ventilation,can be controlled.Optimum house temperatures are an important prere-quisite for high animal performance. Nevertheless, itis only when ventilation is reduced to a minimum(minimum ventilation) that the heating is activated byamacs. All heating systems can be regulated by on/off

or analogously.For high temperatures an efficient cooling system is ofutmost importance in order to achieve a constant highlaying performance. Depending on the temperature andcurrent air humidity, amacs controls the respectivecooling system – Fogging Cooler or Pad Cooling – inthe house.

Let us assume that you are in your office and you arechecking the house climate. You wish to increase thehouse temperature by 2°C? No problem! Just feed thenew temperature into amacs and the heating in thehouse will be activated immediately.

The 4 functional areas depend on the actual installation concept1. Climate – with customer-specific illustration of your house on your PC

Adjustment and control of the entirehouse climate

Adjustment and control of feeding,feed weighing

Settings for manure drying, controlof air mixer

Adjustment and control of watersupply and lighting

Counting of eggs by means of anegg counter

Total egg collection, control of eggtransportation

Production and livestock management,calculation of production data

Visualization and listing of currentalarm messages

Graphical visualization of differentdata

Web cam picture transmitted directlyfrom the house

Software: when booting amacs, the system graphically displays all houses to becontrolled and the different function keys

This comprehensive functional area compris-es the entire feeding management includingthe feed bin weighing, feed logging, light control, water logging including alarm mes-

sages as well as livestock management.Feeding in accordance with laying performance is adecisive factor for saving feed costs. Thanks to amacs,you can determine the feed consumption per tier, per

bird and per day at any time. The separately pro-grammable feeding manager enables you to controlthe feed intake either automatically or manually. Feedconsumption can be determined by means of an elec-tronic feed weigher, feed bin weighing or pulse count-ing. Moreover, feed bin weighing also enables you tocontrol the feed deliveries of your suppliers.

2. Production – comprises the entire feeding management, water supply, lightingand livestock management

Optimum water supply is a decisive prerequi-site for high laying performance. amacs records daily the water consumption (eitherml/hour or ml/day and hen) by means of an

electronic water meter. A timer monitors and controlsthe water consumption. Using a water counting modulemakes it possible to determine the water consumptionper tier.

Disturbances in the water supply of each tier are imme-diately signaled – the red symbol in the picture indicatesthe location of the disturbance. A function key for aspecific area edged in red usually signals disturbancesin the respective area.

A good lighting schedule greatly affects the hens’ behavior, laying performance, egg quality and feed utilization. For this purposeamacs is equipped with a separately pro-

grammable time switch, a lighting level control to-gether with a dusk/dawn simulation, allowing you tocreate any lighting program you want. Moreover, alight sensor allows active (real) light regulation.

In the picture on the right you can see how to controlthe light manually.

By using the egg optimization module, amacs is able to determine the velocity of the egg belts in dependence on the amountof eggs. In doing so the capacity of the egg

grader and packer can be used in the best possible way.

The above farm illustration shows the way of eggtransportation. The farmer can exactly see and pre-cisely determine in which order the eggs are to becollected.

Laying performance is recorded fully auto-matically by means of an egg counter. This data necessary for reports and diagrams is then stored in a data base.

Laying performance is monitored directly, so that it canimmediately be seen from the graphical house illustra-tion how many eggs have been produced in whichhouse section. The colors indicate whether the currentegg production meets the farmer’s expectations.

Air mixers, heat exchangers or radial fans are regulated on the basis of outside tem-perature and manure drying temperature, thus guaranteeing optimum and even

manure drying. It goes without saying that amacs alsocontrols the automatic filters in case of need.

The illustration on the left shows a cage house withfront air mixer, which is just being controlled manually.

amacs can control up to 8 air mixers per house,though it is also possible to control them manually.

The picture on the right illustrates both the front andthe back house section. Moreover, a filter is just beingcleaned.

3. Egg collection – from laying performance to overall egg collection

4. Manure drying – ensures fresh house air and little ammonia emissions

Data processing and graphical visualization of the entire house and production data

Your own farm-specific data processing– no problem thanks to amacs

He who gathers data knows more than others!amacs collects a great variety of data, which can easily and rapidly be processed by your office PC. Feed utilization, feed/

water ratio, laying performance, mortality, hours ofheating and of course your complete climate controlare made visible to you in tables and charts.

The special advantage: all gathered data can be illustrated as curves and can be combined freely by just one mouse click (drag & drop).

Power failure, deviations in temperature, water and feed consumption as well as minimum stock in the silo may all activate an alarm. Thanks to amacs you are always

on the safe side as alarm messages are transmittedvia e-mail or SMS to a mobile phone.

Frequent disturbances can be detected and tracedback by means of the alarm statistics. Aptly-namedevent filters make it possible to precisely select, forinstance, production problems or climate alarms. Thealarm statistics also serves as a farm logbook.

Thanks to its various interfaces, amacs constitutesa highly flexible Agro Management and ControlSystem, thus enabling you to import data intoany MS-Office application, such as Excel, Wordor Power Point and to process data as well as tocreate diagrams.

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GermanyBig Dutchman International GmbHPostfach 1163 · 49360 Vechta · GermanyTel. +49(0)4447-801-0Fax +49(0)4447-801-237E-Mail: big@bigdutchman.de

USABig Dutchman, Inc.P.O. Box 1017 · Holland, MI 49422-1017 · USATel. +1-616-392 59 81Fax +1-616-392 61 88e-mail: bigd@bigdutchmanusa.com

AsiaBig Dutchman AsiaNo. 25, Jalan Pemberita (U1/49) Temasya Industrial Park · Section U140150 Shah Alam · Selangor Darul Ehsan · MalaysiaTel. +60-3-556 923 20 · Fax +60-3-556 958 30e-mail: bdasia@bda.com.my

The mobile Organizer PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)enables the user to actively intervene in the controlprocess of amacs or to enter important data duringhis check-up walks through the house. The data istransmitted into the data base management systemand can thus be used for further processing.

amacs offers you the following excellent features and benefits:

) Use of a report printer) Use of a data transmission modem) Alarm messages via SMS or e-mail) Web cam in the house

) Remote control and maintenance via telephone) Radio control via PDA) Various interfaces for external, own data

processing

By using a web cam, pictures can be trans-mitted directly from the house to your office PC, so that you can always see what is going on in the house in real time.

Let amacs keep you continually informed about the condition of your operation. Accurateand immediate productioninformation allows fasterand more accurate response,which yields optimum results.