GeneXus > Case Studies > Bovitrato: Automating Cattle Nutrition Management with GeneXus

Bovitrato: Automating Cattle Nutrition Management with GeneXus

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Event-Driven Application
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Agriculture
Equipment & Machinery

Use Cases

Leasing Finance Automation
Livestock Monitoring

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Bovitrato is a company created through a partnership between FMX and Seys. It was initially focused on livestock confinement management but has expanded its services to cover the entire life cycle of cattle, from gestation to slaughter. The company aims to automate the breeding and rearing stages of the animals, ensuring total control of nutrition. Bovitrato's customers are primarily cattle producers who need a system to manage costs and automate the entire cattle feeding chain. Currently, 60 producers use the application, and the company aims to double the number of system users within a year.

The Challenge

Bovitrato, a company created through a partnership between FMX and Seys, was initially focused on livestock confinement management. However, the company recognized the need to expand its services to cover the entire life cycle of cattle, from gestation to slaughter. The challenge was to automate the breeding and rearing stages of the animals, ensuring total control of nutrition. This required a system that could manage costs and automate the entire cattle feeding chain, including the breeding phase, from cow gestation to calf birth, and the rearing phase, covering the animal's growth until the confinement or fattening stage. The system needed to be able to send planned production orders for loading and unloading operations in feed mixers, whether in vehicles or static mixers. The scale, incorporated in the mixers, had to select the necessary ingredients and prepare the diet, whether for individual animals or batches of cattle.

The Solution

Bovitrato developed a system with GeneXus that allows the user to manage costs and automate the entire cattle feeding chain. The solution enables an animal nutritionist to determine and parameterize the entire nutrition plan in the software. The software then sends planned production orders for loading and unloading operations in feed mixers. The scale, incorporated in the mixers, selects the necessary ingredients and prepares the diet, whether for individual animals or batches of cattle. To ensure complete automation, the Bovitrato system is connected to a wireless weighing module (MPSF) that connects to the load cells of the equipment, sending weight readings to the application. The application then registers and manages the loading data. The solution also includes a remote display that allows the loading shovel to connect to any of the production equipment and accurately dose the inputs. Long-range transmitters are used to enable communication between the equipment.

Operational Impact

The automation of the cattle feeding process has resulted in significant operational benefits. The system ensures total control of nutrition from cow gestation to the moment the animal goes to the slaughterhouse. As the cattle are fed, the loaded values of each ingredient for individual feeding are recorded in the system, creating a history for each animal. This allows producers to have precise control over the expenses of animal nutrition, knowing exactly the quantity and cost of the diet, which reduces human errors in calculations related to expenses and the quantity of inputs used in the processes. The system also includes sanitary control, feeder and animal management, feed factory control, cost management, and sales analysis. This comprehensive solution contributes to the modernization of the livestock sector, enabling the automation and digitization of processes in cattle feeding.

Quantitative Benefit

5 to 10% reduction in labor
0.6% saving in feed inputs during feeding processes
Saving of approximately 60,000 reais for a farm that confines 9,000 head of cattle per cycle