# Can Livestock Farming Benefit from Industry 4.0 Technology? Evidence from Recent Study
## 4 Results
### Poultry
#### 4.2.2 State and Potential of Industry 4.0 Benefits  
**Digital individualization**: As a prerequisite for high stock health and the demand-oriented supply of poultry, husbandry is operated in a continuous in-out process as standard where a herd represents an age group. An individual animal identifier, for example by wing marks, is not used outside of breeding populations or for research purposes. Instead of relating detected events to individual animals, single animal events are detected anonymously and combined to derive conclusions on the herd level. By specifying expectation corridors for various animal-related data such as the development of live weight with scatter parameters, feed and water consumption, and mortality, conclusions can be drawn about the health of the herd on the herd level. A regular evaluation of the herd data with scatter, which is required in addition to the documentation, allows an early detection of abnormalities or deviations from the target. An animal-related, digitally supported recording via imaging systems takes place at the slaughterhouse to classify the carcass or to identify and evaluate breast skin changes and footpad changes (e.g., systems from Meyn and CLK). This recording not only provides the assessment with regard to marketing (yes/no; whole body/part) but also allows some retrospective evaluation of the husbandry. **Flexibilization**: Flexibility is possible at the operational level regarding the time of removing the flock. For example, by linking data such as mortality, live weight, and feed consumption in the Farm Management System, a very good estimate of the data for the slaughter weight is made possible. From this, the loading date can be flexibly brought forward or set back by days in order to be as close as possible to the carcass requirements and thus to the sale product for retailers. Nevertheless, flexibility is limited due to the constant occupancy of the barn and correlated lead time for, e.g., hatchery and processing. **Information transparency**: Due to the strong vertical integration within poultry farming, there is, depending on the company, transparent data management across the value chain of broiler chickens and laying hens. Developing and establishing a system to promote the use of data while at the same time protecting transparency is part of ongoing research projects such as \"5G Agrar\" as part of digitalization in agriculture in the state of Lower Saxony (Zukunftslabor Agrar within ZDIN [41]). The linking of different systems with different interfaces as well as the transparency of inventory data within the chain is currently handled with caution due to the risk of data misuse. However, work is being undertaken on this because it represents the essential basis for risk-oriented inventory management and significantly contributes to improving animal health and animal welfare. **Demand orientation/\"X as a Service\"**: An exchange of digitally supported systems between farms does not take place, on the one hand against the background of biosecurity, but also because they are permanently installed in the stable building. Future procedures such as hatching in the barn for fattening poultry could offer another way here, since this event only takes place in a narrow time window at the beginning of the husbandry period. The demand-based recording of the housing environment via the sensor-based recording of the litter (e.g., temperature, pH value, water content) requires the continuous use and permanent installation of sensors in the data collection chain. **Sustainability**: Sustainability in poultry farming in terms of resource optimization is promoted by the correct application of digitally supported systems. Digital and sensor-based systems offer the potential to support risk-oriented herd management.