SMART Broiler

SMART Broiler is developing technologies to objectively assess broiler chickens’ welfare in commercial facilities.
Generating Advanced Animal Systems Solutions
SMART Broiler is developing technologies to objectively assess broiler chickens’ welfare in commercial facilities.

Program Contact

Nikki Dutta
ndutta@foundationfar.org

Development Contact

Lauren Hershey
lhershey@foundationfar.org

This program is not accepting applications.

About SMART Broiler

Poultry welfare is critical to chicken production. Healthy chickens have the highest feed efficiency, are more productive and profitable and are better for the environment.

Existing methods for assessing animal welfare rely on human observation and subjective scoring. Technologies that automatically collect quantitative data on commercial farms, with 25,000-50,000 birds per house, can help producers significantly improve animal welfare. The commercial broiler industry annually raises billions of chickens specifically for meat. Given the size and scale of these facilities, the potential impact of these technologies on animal welfare cannot be overstated.

We teamed up with McDonald’s Corporation to develop and commercialize automated monitoring tools that objectively assess broiler chickens’ welfare. This research aims to identify Sensors, Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technologies (SMART) solutions that provide objective and comprehensive information about broiler welfare across the supply chain.

SMART Broiler is offering multiple grants totaling $4 million to the individual or group who successfully develops technologies that objectively assess welfare indicators in commercial broiler chicken facilities.

SMART Broiler Awarded Grants

Noninvasive Wellness Monitoring of Broiler Growout Using Continuous Audio Analytics

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $180,000

Total award amount   $445,000

Location   Oxford, United Kingdom

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   Tyson Foods, Fielddale Farms, Amazon

Development of an Automated Broiler Gait Score and Flock Activity Assessment System

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $350,000

Total award amount   $513,214

Location   Knoxville, TN

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   Peco Foods, Inc., University of Tennessee AgResearch

Smart Monitoring of Broiler Welfare using Camera Technology and Machine Learning

Year Awarded  2020

FFAR award amount   $499,639

Total award amount   $1,000,039

Location   Vejen, Denmark

Program   SMART Broiler

Matching Funders   Scio+, SKOV A/S

See all SMART Broiler Awarded Grants 

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The Latest

News

The latest news and updates from FFAR.

See all News

SMART Broiler Phase II Grant Advances Broiler Chicken Welfare

USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation Sponsors $200,000 for FFAR-Funded Research that Benefits the Poultry Industry

FFAR Announces $4M Animal Welfare Technology Research Initiative, In Partnership With McDonald’s

Want to do more to support our pioneering research?