Blog Post
Agriculture - Chickenfarms connected, can we get our profitability up?
Jakes Van Der Mescht • June 19, 2020
Chicken farming is a science, lots of animals, and the environment must be optimal for animal growth. How can iTesseract help?
Chicken farming, broilers as it is known, needs a lot of attention. You have 33 to 35 days then your day old chicks are ready to go. I got a call from a broiler farmer, and the issue is that some houses are more profitable than others. Some mortality rates are higher, some slaughter weight is less than others. Two houses next to each other, one makes less money than other one. And chickens are medicined and given same food. What is the issue.
In my mind it must be environment. Rythms, of lighting, curtains up acurtain down, temperature, ammonia from fethes, oxygen levels. Let's paint the picture of complexity. Chicken 1 day old needs 35 to 36 degrees environment. How do you do this? You burn coal and push warm air through the house. There are 21 chickens on a square meter. Some try more. Lots of breathing animals, in a rather closed, isolated environment, oxygen levels can go critical. You will have unhealthy animals, not growing at optimal rates.
Lets add more complexity on air quality. Ammonia, a gas secreted from chicken fesis, are poisinois in high levels. Luckily it rises with the warmth from animals and heat from coals. But a certain amount hangs around. And you have to get this ammonia gas out of your house. You could get buildup.
So lets face it, putting so many animals in this small space, and blow warm air in house from burning coal, from outside, animals eat, and ammonia buildups happen, animals breath and use up air quickly, you will not have optimal quality air to breath.
Its in the balance. Opening up curtains, down the fires and temperature at the right times, lights on and off at the right times. And the farmers have been doing this for years and years. And they good at it, believe me. But. Their houses are not giving same profits. Some chicken farmers slaughter weight is lower than others.
We installed iTesseract Enviro in a chicken broiler house. It measures ambient light, so we will see when lights are on, curtains are up or down. We measure temperature, so we make sure temperature is controlled optimally. Like explained allready, the hotter you need to keep your house, the more are your curtains down, the less oxygen. But it is critical to keep the chick, especially first couple of weeks, at correct temperature. We measure Amonia, harmful particales(dust and CO2 from smoke) and we measure oxygen. Humidity and barometic pressure. Barometic pressure tells us wether there is a build up for rain. This helps with logistics.
Dashboards are available to suppliers of food and medicine, managers, and owners. Everybody watches the dash on their phones. Slight misses with rythms of curtains up down, lights on off, are quickly spotted and corrected. More care are taken with letting oxygen in when oxygen drops.
The result? Rytms are kept. Temperatures are managed. Potential disasters are quickly spotted. And the calls happen, quickly. And every cycle of chickens from day 1 to 35, it went better. Things happened on clockwork. And people responded.
Benefits. It is more of a team thing. People not at the farm can help monitoring farming and react. Rythms are more ontime. Any temperature issues are spotted and corrected within minutes. Temperature can plummit and take hours to come back up, if you left the door open. Now it is spotted within minutes. And the magic question. Is the profitability up? When I asked, I got a "This cycle went very well." If it is farmer language for:"Yes! Definately, my profitability is up." Then I guess, the profitability is up with iTesseract connecting the stakegolders of this chicken broilery connected, every second.
If you are a broiler farmer, or animal farmer, and need some help to log the environment and rythms of your farming operation, do give us a call. We can help. Drop me a mail at jakes@itesseract.com
TESRAC unified Cloud is here. Our team has been working relentlessly to build a new TESRAC Managed IOT Cloud Platform. TESRAC 3.0 offers fast and secure views for all your IOT endpoints. MQTT has been and is the goto protocol for IOT backbones. The MQTT platforms out there like BeeHive and Mosquito does come with its shortcomings. Security and reliability for injections is a major drawback to make these protocols industrial. TESRAC 3.0 offers an alternative to MQTT and offers API that can link securely to your IOT endpoints, via WIFI and GSM. Now we can customise our management dashboards for each customer. Out of the box each customer can have their own dashboards, tailored to fit the application, whether it is mobile views or command centres with large screens for monitoring. TESRAC 3.0 offers per user secured views, that means depending on who logs in, the views will change to what that user may see. You can have managers, operators and customers looking at the same IOT feeds, but see it differently. Even to graph level where one user sees data in table form, another in graph form. We have user customisable widgets, like gauges, graphs, text boxes, relays switches, logo widgets and more. Adding IOT devices and users are now possible through an Admin screen to those that has admin rights. TESRAC 3.0 can be white labelled and is offered as a platform that can be hired or outright purchased. Yes, you can use TESRAC 3.0 today to give your users a secure unified view that displays well on monitors and smartphones! For more information do contact us! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Heating and cooling is a very large component of most industries. It is also a large cost factor. Because of some industries dependency on heating or cooling, a breakage in your systems can be catastrophic and should be avoided at all costs. Airconditioners not switched off over a weekend or holdays can cost R1000s in losses. Shouldnt you be aware and notified of Aircon and other cooling health? That is where Tesrac can assist. With Tesrac controllers you can add load and temperature sensors, and control all the components like Aircons remotely and automated. Dashboards visible every moment on your smartphone. See when the temperatures are out of line, and spot problems before critical damage! Load will tell you any electricity supply problems and you can react accordingly in time. Tesrac gives you information on your smartphone, like: Temperature profiles When aircons are on, or off Duration aircons are running Electricity supply problems Control of aircons from your smartphone All you need is GSM reception, power at the controllers, and Tesrac. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can manage it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and large losses! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Lost remote controls? No way to give visitors access without being around to open the gate? GSM systems just cumbersome and not the future! How about a visitors register? Not knowing when your gate is open, or people entering your property or business park without your knowledge, can you really afford that? That is where Tesrac can assist. smartGate is a Bluetooth long range solution that works from your smartphone. You can have multiple tags opening multiple gates and garages. smartGate has login security, so nobody can just enter your property anymore! You also can invite visitors and assign timeframes they can enter. And from an easy to use app you can then control your entrance to all your gates, homes, offices, garages, store rooms and more. smartGate makes gate control for families, office parks a or residential complexes easy to manage, and offer great add on features like: Gate tamper alarm Multiple tags can get activated and controlled by owner Owner can add visitors, family friends colleagues to the allowed access from his phone, to any gate Visitors download app and have access from app Sense auto open allows you to be close to the gate, and the gate will open without you doing anything Events list, view events in/out gate records from your phone Notifications when favourite people leave or return And more smartGate invites for visitors you need to be online, but access can be offline using latest ble(bluetooth low powered technology). The installation is easy and person with some basic battery and gate connection experience can manage that. We are always available to support. smartGate invites for visitors you need to be online, but access can be offline using latest ble(Bluetooth low powered technology). The installation is easy and person with some basic battery and gate connection experience can manage that. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, legacy remote controls are insecure, with no knowledge of who accessed when! There is no excuse not to use technology to give you piece of mind on gate access from your smart phone with smartGate! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Heating and cooling is a very large component of most industries. It is also a large cost factor. Because of some industries dependency on heating or cooling, a breakage in your systems can be catastrophic and should be avoided at all costs. A heatpump not switched off when the water supply stopped, will burn out in no time. Yes we install manual cut-offs, but is it enough? Shouldnt you be aware and notified on all events on your heating and cooling? That is where Tesrac can assist. With Tesrac controllers you can add load and temperature sensors, and control all the components like pumps and elements remotely. All automated and visible every moment on your smartphone. See when the temperatures are out of line, and spot problems before critical damage! Load will tell you any electricity supply problems and you can react accordingly in time. Tesrac gives you information on your smartphone, like: Supply and return temp over time When pumps or elements were switched on, or off Duration of pumps and other comonents are running Electricity and water supply problems Control of componets from your smartphone All you need is GSM reception, power at the watermeters, and Tesrac. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can manage it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and large losses! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Farming is difficult and complex as it is. And costs mount very quickly. One misstep can salvage your total profit on a cycle. Farming snails is relative new venture, mainstream for only a decade or so. With snails temperature and humidity is of atmost importance. These fragile animals cannot have weather to hot, or too cold, or not enough humidity. They can also have too much humidity! Get all this right, and you have a highly profitable business. You can farm snails in less space than what you need for most other farming. But this can also be your biggest factor to control. Lots of animals in a small space can become sick very quickly if you do not control their environment 24x7. That is where iTesseract comes in. With iTesseract controllers you can add humidity and temperature sensors, and control the misting of water on and off. All automated and visible every moment on your smartphone. Never let the humidity go down too low, or temperatures soar. When the temperature or humidity reaches critical level, your irrigation will be switched on. iTesseract gives you information on your smartphone, like: Humdity over time Temperatures over time When irrigation was switched on, or off Duration irrigation was on Whether the irrigation is on right now, or off And you can switch pumps on from your phone And you can add relays for aircons or UV pumps as well! All you need is GSM reception, power at the watermeters, and iTesseract. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can mange it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and accidental large electricity or water related bills! Contact me at jakes@itesseract.com
Most small holdings has businesses running from it, and people living on the premises. Sometimes even more than one family. Face it, to afford living on small holding you need to maximise your revenue you can generate from it. You have the space right? With having a small holding with businesses running from it, and probable a rental or two, the cost add up quickly to provide water and electricity. And it can quickly become your biggest expense. So if it is a large expense, shouldn't you closely manage it? That is where iTesseract comes in. With iTesseract controllers you can add water level sensors for reservoirs, and control the borehole on and off. All automated and visible every moment on your smartphone. Never let the pumps run dry, people without water or reservoirs running over. When the reservoir reaches critical level, your borehole will be switched on. When the reservoir is filled, your borehole pump will be switched off. Unlike legacy systems out there that does this today, iTesseract gives you information on your smartphone, like: Up to four levels When pump was switched on, or off Duration pumps were on Whether the pump is on right now, or off Temperature and Humidity at controller or site And you can switch pumps on from your phone The next big expense that is linked to how much water you are pumping, is electricity usage. iTesseract can measure consumption of your total electricity usage of the main incoming, sub metering per house, workshops and factories. Individual tenants and managers can see their electricity usage, and you can see all of electricity usage, including individual houses or workshops. Again iTesseract gives you on your phone: kwH usage per hour for the day kwH today vs yesterday per hour Usage for the month Usage for last month You can add a kwH downcounter, how many units are left for this month(credits like a prepaid meter) And you can add relays for houses or factories. Now you can convert the meter to a prepaid meter, or just use the relay to switch power off and on. All you need is GSM reception, power at the watermeters, and iTesseract. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can mange it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and accidental large electricity or water related bills! Contact me at jakes@itesseract.com
A must for Covid Agriculture, Agriculture IOT. Remote monitoring and management.
How to send messageQ string to smartControl
Can you afford not to install smart electricity meters?
iTesseract IOT Smart Cities
TESRAC Blog
TESRAC unified Cloud is here. Our team has been working relentlessly to build a new TESRAC Managed IOT Cloud Platform. TESRAC 3.0 offers fast and secure views for all your IOT endpoints. MQTT has been and is the goto protocol for IOT backbones. The MQTT platforms out there like BeeHive and Mosquito does come with its shortcomings. Security and reliability for injections is a major drawback to make these protocols industrial. TESRAC 3.0 offers an alternative to MQTT and offers API that can link securely to your IOT endpoints, via WIFI and GSM. Now we can customise our management dashboards for each customer. Out of the box each customer can have their own dashboards, tailored to fit the application, whether it is mobile views or command centres with large screens for monitoring. TESRAC 3.0 offers per user secured views, that means depending on who logs in, the views will change to what that user may see. You can have managers, operators and customers looking at the same IOT feeds, but see it differently. Even to graph level where one user sees data in table form, another in graph form. We have user customisable widgets, like gauges, graphs, text boxes, relays switches, logo widgets and more. Adding IOT devices and users are now possible through an Admin screen to those that has admin rights. TESRAC 3.0 can be white labelled and is offered as a platform that can be hired or outright purchased. Yes, you can use TESRAC 3.0 today to give your users a secure unified view that displays well on monitors and smartphones! For more information do contact us! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Heating and cooling is a very large component of most industries. It is also a large cost factor. Because of some industries dependency on heating or cooling, a breakage in your systems can be catastrophic and should be avoided at all costs. Airconditioners not switched off over a weekend or holdays can cost R1000s in losses. Shouldnt you be aware and notified of Aircon and other cooling health? That is where Tesrac can assist. With Tesrac controllers you can add load and temperature sensors, and control all the components like Aircons remotely and automated. Dashboards visible every moment on your smartphone. See when the temperatures are out of line, and spot problems before critical damage! Load will tell you any electricity supply problems and you can react accordingly in time. Tesrac gives you information on your smartphone, like: Temperature profiles When aircons are on, or off Duration aircons are running Electricity supply problems Control of aircons from your smartphone All you need is GSM reception, power at the controllers, and Tesrac. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can manage it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and large losses! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Lost remote controls? No way to give visitors access without being around to open the gate? GSM systems just cumbersome and not the future! How about a visitors register? Not knowing when your gate is open, or people entering your property or business park without your knowledge, can you really afford that? That is where Tesrac can assist. smartGate is a Bluetooth long range solution that works from your smartphone. You can have multiple tags opening multiple gates and garages. smartGate has login security, so nobody can just enter your property anymore! You also can invite visitors and assign timeframes they can enter. And from an easy to use app you can then control your entrance to all your gates, homes, offices, garages, store rooms and more. smartGate makes gate control for families, office parks a or residential complexes easy to manage, and offer great add on features like: Gate tamper alarm Multiple tags can get activated and controlled by owner Owner can add visitors, family friends colleagues to the allowed access from his phone, to any gate Visitors download app and have access from app Sense auto open allows you to be close to the gate, and the gate will open without you doing anything Events list, view events in/out gate records from your phone Notifications when favourite people leave or return And more smartGate invites for visitors you need to be online, but access can be offline using latest ble(bluetooth low powered technology). The installation is easy and person with some basic battery and gate connection experience can manage that. We are always available to support. smartGate invites for visitors you need to be online, but access can be offline using latest ble(Bluetooth low powered technology). The installation is easy and person with some basic battery and gate connection experience can manage that. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, legacy remote controls are insecure, with no knowledge of who accessed when! There is no excuse not to use technology to give you piece of mind on gate access from your smart phone with smartGate! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Heating and cooling is a very large component of most industries. It is also a large cost factor. Because of some industries dependency on heating or cooling, a breakage in your systems can be catastrophic and should be avoided at all costs. A heatpump not switched off when the water supply stopped, will burn out in no time. Yes we install manual cut-offs, but is it enough? Shouldnt you be aware and notified on all events on your heating and cooling? That is where Tesrac can assist. With Tesrac controllers you can add load and temperature sensors, and control all the components like pumps and elements remotely. All automated and visible every moment on your smartphone. See when the temperatures are out of line, and spot problems before critical damage! Load will tell you any electricity supply problems and you can react accordingly in time. Tesrac gives you information on your smartphone, like: Supply and return temp over time When pumps or elements were switched on, or off Duration of pumps and other comonents are running Electricity and water supply problems Control of componets from your smartphone All you need is GSM reception, power at the watermeters, and Tesrac. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can manage it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and large losses! Contact me at jakes@tesrac.com
Farming is difficult and complex as it is. And costs mount very quickly. One misstep can salvage your total profit on a cycle. Farming snails is relative new venture, mainstream for only a decade or so. With snails temperature and humidity is of atmost importance. These fragile animals cannot have weather to hot, or too cold, or not enough humidity. They can also have too much humidity! Get all this right, and you have a highly profitable business. You can farm snails in less space than what you need for most other farming. But this can also be your biggest factor to control. Lots of animals in a small space can become sick very quickly if you do not control their environment 24x7. That is where iTesseract comes in. With iTesseract controllers you can add humidity and temperature sensors, and control the misting of water on and off. All automated and visible every moment on your smartphone. Never let the humidity go down too low, or temperatures soar. When the temperature or humidity reaches critical level, your irrigation will be switched on. iTesseract gives you information on your smartphone, like: Humdity over time Temperatures over time When irrigation was switched on, or off Duration irrigation was on Whether the irrigation is on right now, or off And you can switch pumps on from your phone And you can add relays for aircons or UV pumps as well! All you need is GSM reception, power at the watermeters, and iTesseract. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can mange it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and accidental large electricity or water related bills! Contact me at jakes@itesseract.com
Most small holdings has businesses running from it, and people living on the premises. Sometimes even more than one family. Face it, to afford living on small holding you need to maximise your revenue you can generate from it. You have the space right? With having a small holding with businesses running from it, and probable a rental or two, the cost add up quickly to provide water and electricity. And it can quickly become your biggest expense. So if it is a large expense, shouldn't you closely manage it? That is where iTesseract comes in. With iTesseract controllers you can add water level sensors for reservoirs, and control the borehole on and off. All automated and visible every moment on your smartphone. Never let the pumps run dry, people without water or reservoirs running over. When the reservoir reaches critical level, your borehole will be switched on. When the reservoir is filled, your borehole pump will be switched off. Unlike legacy systems out there that does this today, iTesseract gives you information on your smartphone, like: Up to four levels When pump was switched on, or off Duration pumps were on Whether the pump is on right now, or off Temperature and Humidity at controller or site And you can switch pumps on from your phone The next big expense that is linked to how much water you are pumping, is electricity usage. iTesseract can measure consumption of your total electricity usage of the main incoming, sub metering per house, workshops and factories. Individual tenants and managers can see their electricity usage, and you can see all of electricity usage, including individual houses or workshops. Again iTesseract gives you on your phone: kwH usage per hour for the day kwH today vs yesterday per hour Usage for the month Usage for last month You can add a kwH downcounter, how many units are left for this month(credits like a prepaid meter) And you can add relays for houses or factories. Now you can convert the meter to a prepaid meter, or just use the relay to switch power off and on. All you need is GSM reception, power at the watermeters, and iTesseract. The installation is easy and any electrician or plumber can mange it. We are always available to support. All this said, it is the right thing to do, no excuses for wastage and accidental large electricity or water related bills! Contact me at jakes@itesseract.com
A must for Covid Agriculture, Agriculture IOT. Remote monitoring and management.
How to send messageQ string to smartControl
Can you afford not to install smart electricity meters?
iTesseract IOT Smart Cities
