NL2023781B1 - Method and system for automatically meeting a need of a production animal - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention pertains to a method and system for automatically meeting a need of a production animal for obtaining optimum growth, the method comprising the provision of a relationship between the said need and the growth of the animal in time, establishing for the animal at a time t = to a growth parameter, positioning the animal at t = to on a curve that corresponds to the said relationship based on the said growth parameter, and after t= to actually meeting the need of the animal as determined by the curve by establishing at time t = t1 after t = to a factor that has an influence on the growth of the animal, calculating at t = t1 whilst using the established factor, what the position is the animal has relative to the curve, and if there is a difference between the calculated position and the curve at t = t1, calculating an adjusted need of the production animal to decrease the said difference and automatically adjusting the said meeting of the need of the animal to meet the said adjusted need of this animal.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY MEETING A NEED OF A PRODUCTION ANIMAL

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention pertains to a method and system for automatically meeting a need of a production animal for obtaining optimum growth. In particular the invention pertains to a method and system that at particular intervals during growth of the production animals assessed whether growth is still optimal and if not, automatically determine an adjusted need of the production animal in order to optimize its growth.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION The management of production animals (live-stock) is largely automated these days, especially in the bio-industry. Feeding of the animals is highly automated as is climate control and other animal well-fare conditions. Also, monitoring of medical treatments is to an extent automated by using medicament administering and tracing methods and digital storage of these data, such as for example described in WO2013/110624 (assigned to Piglets Treatments Systems BV, The Netherlands).

Also, technology to automatically monitor the growth of animals is known. For example, WO 2005/034618 (assigned to AB Svenska Mätanalys, Sweden) discloses a method for monitoring the weight and other parameters of pigs in which method individual pictures are taken of each pig and simultaneously identification of the pigs is performed using data emitted by a chip in each pig.

W02014/026765 (assigned to Hölscher & Leuschner GMBH & Co, Germany) discloses a method wherein a mobile 3D camera is used within a stable to establish for each pig data corresponding to the weight and meat quality. Next to this, WO 2019/068921 (assigned to A.W.J. Claessens) discloses a method for the management of a group of production animals kept in a confined space, the method comprising at multiple points in time during the period wherein the animals are kept in the confined space, for each individual animal of the said group, the automatic identification of the animal, establishment of a position the animal takes in the confined space, determination of a physical property of the animal, and the coupled storage of data corresponding to the identification, the position and the physical property in a memory that is operatively connected to the said animal. The technology described can also be used to identify individual animals in a group of animals.

Also, the Dutch firm NEDAP provides systems (commercially available as NEDAP Pork Sense) to individually monitor the growth of production animals by weighing each animal individually at regular times during its growth and adjust the feed of each individual animal in order to realise optimum growth.

The system is effective but expensive and cannot be used in existing stables.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION Despite the high level of automation in the keeping of production animals, and the various individual systems and methods known to retrieve data regarding the production animals during their lifetime, there is still a need for a method and system for automatically meeting a need of a production animal for obtaining optimum growth. In particular, there is a need for a method and system in which information relating to the growth of each individual animal is can be optimally used to control production, as well as other parameters such as animal welfare.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It was applicant's recognition that despite the high level of automation of various processes to manage production animals, the current methods that strive at optimum growth of each individual animal still need improvement.

To this end a method for automatically meeting a need of a production animal for obtaining optimum growth has been devised, wherein the method comprises the provision of a relationship between the said need and the growth of the animal in time, establishing for the animal at a time t =t0 a growth parameter, positioning the animal at t = t0 on a curve that corresponds to the said relationship based on the said growth parameter, and after t= tO actually meeting the need of the animal as determined by the curve by establishing at time t = t1 after t = t0 a factor that has an influence on the growth of the animal, calculating at t = t1 whilst using the established factor, what the position is the animal has relative to the curve, and if there is a difference between the calculated position and the curve att = ti, calculating an adjusted need of the production animal to decrease the said difference and automatically adjusting the said meeting of the need of the animal to meet the said adjusted need of this animal.

In the automatic methods of the prior art, the weight of each animal is routinely measured at consecutive timepoints in order to monitor its growth.

Although very accurate, such a method is very expensive in practice since the stables have to be provided with means to individually weigh each animal at regular times.

At the same time this means that the system often cannot be placed in existing animal facilities at against economically viable costs.

Next to this, such a method is per definition reactive: any event that has consequences for the weight of the animals, but which event takes place in between weighing moments, cannot be taken into account.

It is not until after it is actually established that the weight does not meet optimum growth that a need of the animals can be adjusted.

The current invention started off with the applicant recognizing that for many needs of an animal that are related to growth, relationships are already known or can be easily determined, since there in many cases there is a direct link between the said need and the growth of the animal in time.

For example, curves exist that relate the amount of feed over time with the weight of a pig after weaning, or that relate to the climate, time and weight of a fish in pen, or even curves that relate to more indirect relationships between certain factors and growth such as the effect of social structures, presence of a mother animal in the early stage of life etc.

The new method starts off with establishing what position the animal takes on the curve at a starting time (t = t0). This can be done by an operator (e.g. by weighing an animal), or can be implanted fully automatically (establishing the weight by camera observation), or a mix of operator involvement and automation. Then, by providing the relationship between the said need and growth over time, there is no longer a need to actually measure growth (which might be cumbersome), but it may suffice to simply measure one or more factors that have an influence on the growth of the animal over time, based on which at a next timepoint it can be established how the animal has grown. For example, a factor that has a direct relationship with growth is the amount of feed taken over time (so before t = tl). For example, a situation may exist wherein a particular pig, starting at 30 days of age, has a weight at that point in time of 8 kg. Then, by measuring each day what the amount of feed is that the pig takes (assuming a standard level of exercise/movement), it can easily be calculated what the weight of this pig is at a later point in time for example at 35, 40, 45 days of age etc. So without actually weighing the pig, its weight can be calculated by using knowledge how the factor that influences the growth has evolved over time. The same is true for every other factor for which a relationship with growth is known when applying the current method. In the method one thus simply makes use of knowledge regarding factors influencing growth, and the relationship between the need of the animal and its growth. All one has to do is to position at a starting point (time t = t0)

the animal on a curve that corresponds to the said relationship based on the a growth parameter (which could be the starting weight), and thereafter routinely determine the factor that influences growth (which factor thus may be the sum of multiple events over time up to the point in time where this 5 factor is determined). This allows calculating by using the established factor

(as evolving over time), what the position is the animal has relative to the curve, and if there is a difference between the calculated position and the curve at a time after t = t0, the calculation of an adjusted need of the production animal to decrease the said difference.

For example, if the calculation shows that an animal weigh less than it should weigh at a certain age, the feed of this individual animal can be automatically adjusted, meeting the increased need of the animal to catch up.

In the present method, existing systems to retrieve data for production animals can be incorporated in whole or in part.

For example, the systems and methods as known form the patent applications referred to here above in the Background Information section can be advantageously used, in whole or in part, when practicing the method of the invention.

In particular, the systems and methods as known from WO2013/110624 and WO

2019/068921 are particularly advantageous to this end and the text of these patent applications is herewith incorporated in toto by reference.

The points in time when to establish the factor may depend on the knowledge level of the predetermined correlation between the factor and the growth, thy type of relationship, but ay also be determined by a predetermined scheme, or by coincidence, or triggered by an event etc.

This depends largely on the desired accuracy and level of knowledge about the relationship between the need of an animal and its growth, but in particular on the knowledge about the influence of the “to determine” factor on the growth of the animal.

It is noted that optimum growth in the sense of the invention may be, but is not necessarily, fastest growth.

It may be that form an economical point of view, a slower growth, but leading to higher quality meat is considered better than a fast growth.

Also, growth can be considered for a group of production animals as a whole, instead of assessing only each animal individually.

It may for example be that for a group there is overall better growth if some animals grow suboptimal (when considered individually). In any case, optimum growth can be considered from various standpoints such as weight, economics, animal welfare etc.

The invention is also embodied in system which comprises a nourishing means to automatically provide a need of a production animal for obtaining optimum growth of the production animal, a memory having stored therein data that represent a curve that corresponds to a predetermined relationship between the said need of a production animal and the actual growth of the animal in time, a central processing unit (CPU) operatively connected to the memory, the CPU having an input unit for providing data to the CPU regarding a growth parameter for the animal at time t = t0, the CPU being programmed to establish the position the animal has at t = tO on the said curve, a measurement unit operatively connected to the CPU to establish at time t = tl after tO a factor that has an influence on the growth of the animal, the CPU being further programmed to calculate at t = tl using the established factor, the position that the animal has relative to the curve, the CPU being additionally programmed to calculate, if there is a difference between the calculated position and the curve at t = t1, an adjusted need of the production animal to decrease the said difference, wherein the CPU is operatively connected to the nourishing means such that the nourishing means are automatically adjusted to meet the said adjusted need of this animal.

Such a system may be a self-contained stand-alone system but may also have its various components distributed over various systems and networks,

wherein all components are operatively connected, for example via the internet and/or wireless connections.

DEFINITIONS A need of a production animal for obtaining growth is any physical or mental need of the animal that is related to growth. Typical physical needs are feed, a comfortable climate and housing, typical mental needs are the presence of peers, grouping that allows natural social structures, the presence of a mother animal in the early stage of life etc. A growth parameter is a parameter that is directly linked to growth, such as weight, size, age etc. A factor that has an influence on the growth of an animal is any factor that has a direct or indirect effect on the growth of the animal. Typical examples are primary factors such as feed intake (including milk for newborn mammals) and amount of physical exercise that have a direct effect on growth, and secondary factors such as climate, intake of medicaments, the body temperature of the animal, stress, hart rate, etc. (e.g. all at certain points in time or during a period of time) that have an indirect effect on growth. Also the difference for each of these primary and secondary factors that arise over a period of time are factors that can be defined as a factor that has an influence on the growth of an animal. For example, whereas the hart rate at a certain moment in time is difficult to link to growth, the difference in heart rate over time is more easily linked to growth since it is known how the hart rate varies with the weight of an animal.

Establishing a factor means to determine what the factor is, for example by directly measuring the factor or a parameter that has a direct and known relationship with the factor (thereby enabling determination of the factor), or by retrieving data in any other way that represent the factor or that can be used to determine the factor, e.g. by simply inputting such data from a record. A primary factor that has an influence on the growth of an animal is a factor that can be equated directly to an amount of energy that goes in or is used by the animal, such as for example an amount of feed (which can be equated with an amount of calories taken in by the animal) or an amount of physical exercise (which can be equated with an amount of calories needed to perform the exercise).

A secondary factor that has an influence on the growth of an animal is a factor that has influence on growth, but cannot be equated directly to an amount of energy, such as for example climate, intake of medicaments, the body temperature of the animal, stress, hart rate, social behaviour and any change herein, production of sound, deviation from normal behaviour, odour in the stable (typically caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that the animals can perceive by their sense of smell), the physical position the animal takes in a stable or pen, or with respect to its mother (or any change in these positions) etc.

A production animal (also referred to as live-stock) is any animal that is kept to raise meat, fibre, protein, milk, eggs, wool, skin or other products for use by humans, as opposed to companion animals which are kept for primarily for a person's company, protection, or entertainment. The keeping of production animals includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of animals. Typical production animals are porcine, bovine, ovine, caprine, fish, and poultry. Nourishing means are means that provide an animal with feed, other substances and conditions necessary for growth, health, and good condition. A confined space can be any closed or semi-closed area designed to restrict, and preferably prevent, the free movement of an animal to an area outside of the confined space, such as a stable, paddock, fenced land, a container, sea pen etc. A point in time means a particular moment or a limited time interval such as a few seconds or minutes.

Identification of an animal means that the animal can be identified as a unique animal, at least distinct from other animal present in the same group of animals. Data corresponding to an identification can be for example a name, a number etc.

The position an animal takes in a space at a certain point in time is the geographical location the said animal has in that space at that point in time. Data corresponding to a positon can be a number or set of numbers (e.g. geographical codes) or any other means of identifying the location (such as for example a name of a box in a stable).

A physical property of an animal is any property than depends on the physical qualities of the animal. Such a property may be for example a dimension (length, height, width, volume), shape, weight, colour, temperature, motion (ability to move and/or actually performed movements), any bodily fluid parameter, respiratory rate, composition of excretions (faces, urine, respiratory air and fluids, etc), but may even be as simple as “being present alive” in the confined space. Data corresponding to a physical property is typically a number or set of numbers, but may also be an operator (“Yes” or "No”) or any other denominator.

Medical treatment means the management and care of a subject animal to combat disease or disorder. Medical treatment in particular includes the use of prescription medicaments and wound closing devices such as surgical glue, sutures, and staples. Data corresponding to a medical treatment is typically the type and amount of medicament that is administered at a certain point in time, or any other medical operation performed on the animal at that point in time.

Feed treatment means the provision of feed (food) to an animal or to nourish as if by feed. Data corresponding to feed treatment is typically the type and amount of feed provided at a certain point in time.

Animal welfare means how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. An animal is in a good state of welfare if it is healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behavior, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress. Parameters by which animal welfare can be measured are the general impression the animal provides, the presence of wounds, its ability to freely move, the number of dead animals in the neighborhood of the animal, the presence of bite marks etc. Regulatory data are data provided by an independent committee to regulate activities or the use of certain products. Examples are marketing authorisations for medicaments (the EMA being an example of a committee that provides the regulatory data), quality labels such as “Biologisch” and “Demeter” (for which the European Committee is the independent committee), “Bio Suisse”, “Beter Leven”, “USDA Quality approved” etc, and licenses provided by governmental organizations such as a license to keep a number of animals, a license to produce an amount of dung or nitrogen, ammonia or other substance.

Data being coup/ed means that they are stored or presented in a combined way, such that they can be analysed (automatically or by a human operator) for the presence of one or more operative relations. Coupled data is also referred to as shared data, i.e. data that can be processed in combination due to shared accessibility.

A medicament is any substance or composition of matter able to prevent, treat, ameliorate or cure a disease or disorder. Typical medicaments used for live-stock are antibiotics, vaccines, anti-inflammatory agents, muscle- relaxants and other small molecule pharmaceuticals.

To connect operatively is to establish a working relationship between two parts.

A memory is any unit that comprises means for storing data, being present at a remote location or locally, e.g. on a local computer, handheld device or in an identification means typically used for identification of a production animal such as an ear tag, implant, bolus or a combination of any of these. The term is not restricted to any type of unit and can e.g. be an RFID chip, a magnetic chip or any other electronic memory, in particular for example an EEPROM, RAM, NVM or FLASH memory.

Automatic means without operator intervention. An automatic action may however be operator initiated or ended.

EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION The method according to the invention is further embodied in a method wherein the need is a physical and/or social need of the animal for obtaining optimum growth. As is commonly known, not only primary physical needs such as water, feed and air may influence growth over time, but also social needs such as ranking, the presence of peers, the presence of the mother animal, a relaxing environment etc. may influence growth. As is commonly known, the influence of each of these needs on the growth over time depends highly on the type of animal (porcine, bovine, ovine, fish etc.) In another embodiment the need is the feed intake of the animal and/or climate in the space wherein the animal is kept. Applicant recognised that these two needs are relatively easy to manage and also have a major influence and growth over time. In yet another embodiment the factor is a primary factor. An essential feature of the invention is that one or more factors that have an influence on the growth of the animal over time are determined at one or more (consecutive) points in time. In this embodiment the factor determined is a so-called primary factor, i.e. a factor that can be equated directly to an amount of energy that goes in or is used by the animal, such as for example an amount of feed or an amount of exercise. In still another embodiment the factor is a secondary factor, i.e. a factor that has influence on growth, but cannot be equated directly to an amount of energy, such as for example climate, intake of medicaments, the body temperature of the animal, stress, hart rate, social behaviour and any change herein, production of sound, deviation from normal behaviour, odour in the stable (typically caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that the animals can perceive by their sense of smell), the physical position the animal takes in a stable or pen, or with respect to its mother (or any change in these positions) etc. In again another embodiment, in the method the factor that is established is at least one primary factor and one or more other primary factors (thus differing from the said at least one primary factor) and/or secondary factors. In a further embodiment the feed intake is established and the climate. In an alternative embodiment the need that is adjusted is the feed intake. In practice the system (stable/pen etc) may be foreseen with trunks where animals are individual fed, wherein each animal can indeed be identified (for example by reading a chip carried by the animal, or by any other means of recognising the animal, such as facial recognition), wherein the trunk is coupled to multiple kinds of feed that can de delivered to the trunk on demand, reflecting the need of the animals at that point in time.

In a further embodiment the feed intake is adjusted by adjusting the amount of nutrients in the feed and/or the physical appearance of the feed, for example by providing more or less feed, better or lower quality feed, feed with another other nutrient density, other temperature, other consistency (different texture, grain size, solid vs liquid, more water etc)), or for example treated differently to release certain nutrients (such as by fermenting). Means to alter the feed to influence the nutritional value per kg are commonly known in the art.

In yet another alternative embodiment the need that is adjusted is the climate.

This may be directed to the overall climate in the confined space where the animal is kept, or it may be directed (for example additionally, but potentially also as an alternative to the overall climate) to the micro climate (local climate) at certain positions within a confined space where the animal is kept.

For example, when keeping pigs in a stable, the overall climate is important, but the micro climate also (or alone) has to be taken into account since depending on the exterior circumstances, the local climate may vary substantially.

For example, the climate near the walls can be substantially different from the climate in a centre section of the stable.

In a further embodiment the climate is adjusted by adjusting one or more of the following properties of the air in the space where the animal is kept: temperature, relative humidity, particles per volume, type of particles present (type of substance, mean diameter), relative content of gases (mainly COz, O2, NH3, CH4, H2S, CO), flow and odour.

In another embodiment after establishing the factor that has influence on the growth of the animal at t = t1, the factor is additionally established at multiple consecutive timepoints tn, n being a natural number equal to 2 or higher (for example 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 7,8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 or even more times, depending on the expected lifespan of the animal, and the desire of fine-tuning the need such as for example multiple times a day, once per day, or only once a week, or even longer periods of time), wherein the factor established at each timepoint is input for calculating the position that the animal has relative to the curve.

In again another embodiment the animal is part of a group of animals kept in a confined space, and that for each animal in the group the method provides for the automatic adjustment of a need of the animal for obtaining optimum growth of each individual animal.

This embodiment is suitable for a type of animal wherein the growth of each animal can be optimized without significantly negatively influencing the growth of other animals in the group.

This does not only depend on the type of animal, but also on the type of space where the animals are kept and on events that happen during the growth of the animals such as extreme (non-normal) temperatures due to the weather, outbreak of a disease etc.

In still another embodiment optimum growth is chosen from the group consisting of maximum ADWG, fastest time to slaughter and maximum feed conversion. This embodiment not only sees to technical optimum growth (i.e. growth in kilograms) but also economical optimum growth. The latter may for example be obtained while not ending with the highest total amount of meat (in kg) at slaughter, but the highest amount of high quality meat, or the overall highest price per kg (wherein the prices per type of meat can be taken into account in the method), or the overall highest quality of milk, eggs, protein or any other product derived from the animal per kg of feed. It is also noted that the term feed conversion is not only restricted to conversion into weight of animal to be fed, but may also relate for example to the amount of weight of the offspring, or the number of offspring, per amount of feed taken by mother animal. In other words, feed conversion can relate to the direct conversion of the feed into animal weight, or to the indirect conversion into the umber and/or weight of offspring or any other indirect measure that is related to an overall amount of animal protein.

In yet another embodiment, wherein the production animal is part of a group of multiple production animals, the method is used for obtaining optimum growth of the group of production animals by individually meeting the need of each animal that is part of said group. In this embodiment the optimum growth is related to the group of animals as a whole and not to individual animals within that group. This is advantageous for those types of production wherein animals are not picked individually at time of slaughter, but all (or the vast majority) of animals in a particular stable (or any other space) are slaughtered more or less at the same point in time. This is typical for pigs and fish.

The above further embodiments all have their equivalents in the system according to the invention.

The invention will now be further explained using the following non-limiting examples.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 schematically shows a relationship between the need of an animal and the growth of this animal in time. Figure 2 schematically shows a system according to the invention.

EXAMPLE An embodiment of the method and system according to figure 2 has been exemplified hereafter.

Figure 1 Figure 1 schematically shows a relationship 1 between the need of an animal (not depicted as such) and the growth of that animal in time. The vertical axis represents the weight of the animal and the horizontal axis the time. The other dimension, not depicted, in this case is the amount of feed per day. The curve represents the growth of the animal over time, for the amount of feed taken in on a daily basis. This relationship for many production animals is in essence the same for each individual animal and can be used to predict the weight of the animal, knowing the amount of feed taken and the time passed under ideal circumstances. However, in practice circumstances are seldom ideal and thus, in line with the present invention, for an animal that at the starting point t = to has a weight that coincides with point 2 on the curve, a factor that has an influence on the growth of the animal is established between t = to (the starting point) and t = t1. In this embodiment, that factor is the actual amount of feed taken in between t = t0 and t = t1. Then, using the established factor, it is calculated what the actual position is the animal has relative to the curve, depicted as 3 in figure

1. As can be seen, there is a difference 5 between the calculated position 3 and the position the animal would have taken on the curve at t = t1 when circumstances would have been ideal (optimum feed intake), i.e. position 4. Based on the said difference, an adjusted need of feed of the production animal is calculated that may be able to decrease the said difference, such that at a later point in time (t = t2) the calculated position and the position on the curve may coincide (indicated as 6). For this goal, the meeting of the need of the animal, i.e. to provide another amount of feed is automatically adjusted.

Figure 2 Figure 2 schematically shows a system 10 according to the invention. The system comprises a confined space 11 to keep a pig 12. The system moreover comprises a memory 14 that is coupled to a central processing unit (CPU) 15. The memory 14 holds the data that relate to the the need for feed of the pig and the growth of that pig in time (curve 1, figure 1). The CPU on its turn is connected to a nourishing means 16, which is able to dose three different amounts of pig feed A, B or C (or mixtures thereof), in precise amounts, in animal feed trunk 17. Trunk 17 is available for pig 12 to feed itself. The trunk is able to establish whether or not the feed doses is eaten by the animal and in what time frame. The corresponding data are send to CPU 15 for processing. At the same time, the system comprises a semi- automated medicament administration device (as known for example from WO2013/110624} that provides input to the CPU about what medicament is administered when. The system also comprises a camera 20 that is able not only to identify the pig (as described in WO 2019/068921), but also to monitor the behaviour of the pig, such as assessing its location over time in the space 11, whether it feeds itself from the trunk, etc.

Example 1 An embodiment of the method and system according to figure 2 is now described. The system is used in line with the invention for automatically meeting a need for feed of the pig 12 as depicted in figure 2 for obtaining optimum growth of this pig over time. The method comprises the provision of a relationship between the said need and the growth of the pig in time into the memory, and establishing for the pig at a time t = t0 a growth parameter, in this case its weight. Thereafter the method comprises positioning the pig at t = t0 on the curve that corresponds to the relationship between growth, time and feed, based on the said growth parameter. After t= tO the need for feed of the pig is actually met as determined by the curve by establishing at time t = t1 after t = tO two factors that have an influence on the growth of the pig (in this case the amount of feed taken and the medicaments administered; both factors have a known influence on the growth of the animal), and then calculating at t = t1 whilst using the established factors, what the position is the pig actually has relative to the curve (see figure 2: position 3 vs position 4). If there is a difference between the calculated position and the curve at t = t1, an adjusted need for feed of the pig is calculated, aiming at a decrease of the said difference. The meeting of the need for feed of the pig is automatically adjusted by adjusting the amount of feed provided to the said pig. These steps are repeated every week for about 25 weeks in a row to optimize growth of the pig until slaughter.

Claims (16)

CONCLUSIONS A method for automatically meeting a need of a production animal to obtain optimum growth, the method comprising providing a relationship between said need and the growth of the animal over time, determining for the animal a growth parameter at a time t = t0, positioning the animal at t = t0 on a curve corresponding to said relationship based on said growth parameter, and after t = t0 actually meeting the need as determined by the curve by determining a factor that affects the growth of the animal at a time t = tl nat = t0, calculating at t = tl what the animal's position is relative to the curve using the determined factor , and if there is a difference between the calculated position and the curve at t = tl, calculating an adjusted requirement of the production animal to minimize said difference and automatically ch adapting the meeting to the needs of the animal, in order to meet this adapted need of this animal. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the animal's need is a physical and/or social need to obtain optimal growth. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the requirement is the feed intake of the animal and/or the climate in the room where the animal is kept. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the factor is a primary factor. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the factor is a secondary factor. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the factor is at least one primary factor and that one or more other primary and/or secondary factors are additionally determined in the method. A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the feed intake is established and the climate. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the need to be adjusted is the feed intake. A method according to claim 8, characterized in that the feed intake is adjusted by adjusting the amount of nutrients in the feed and/or the physical appearance of the feed. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the need to be adapted is the climate. A method according to claim 10, characterized in that the climate is adjusted by adjusting one or more of the following properties of the air in the room where the animal is kept: temperature, relative humidity, particles by volume, type of particles presence, relative presence of gases, flow, smell. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that after the factor influencing growth has been determined at t = ti, this factor is additionally determined at several successive times tn, where n is a natural number equal to 2 or higher, the factor determined at each time point being used as input to calculate the animal's position relative to the curve. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the animal is part of a group of animals kept in a limited space, and that for each animal in the group the method provides for automatically adapting a need of the animal to obtain optimal growth of each animal. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that optimal growth is selected from the group consisting of maximum average daily weight gain (ADWG), fastest time to slaughter and maximum feed conversion. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the production animal is part of a group consisting of several animals, characterized in that the method is used to obtain optimum growth of the group of production animals by providing it individually a need of each animal that is part of the group. A system for applying one of the methods according to claims 1 to 15, characterized in that the system comprises: - a care means for automatically meeting a need of a production animal for obtaining optimum growth of the production animal, - a memory containing data stored therein representing a curve corresponding to a predetermined relationship between the said requirement of the production animal and the actual growth of the animal over time, - a central processor unit (CPU) operably connected to the memory, - the CPU having an input unit to provide the CPU with data regarding a growth parameter for the animal at a time t = t0, - the CPU being programmed to update the position the animal has on said curve t = tO, - a measuring unit operatively connected to the CPU to determine at a time t = tl after tO a factor influencing the growth of the animal - wherein the CPU is further programmed to calculate at t = t1, using the established factor, the position that the animal occupies relative to the curve, - wherein the CPU is additionally programmed to between the calculated position and the curve at t = tl, an adjusted need of the production animal to be calculated to reduce said difference, - wherein the CPU is operatively connected to the grooming means such that the grooming means is automatically adapted to meet the adapted needs of the animal.