WO2006064080A1

WO2006064080A1 - Method for managing the production of feed used in a production unit

Info

Publication number: WO2006064080A1
Application number: PCT/FI2005/000121
Authority: WO
Inventors: Simo Urpio
Original assignee: Suomen Rehu Oy
Priority date: 2004-12-15
Filing date: 2005-02-25
Publication date: 2006-06-22
Also published as: FI117989B; FI20041610A; FI20041610A0

Abstract

The present invention relates to the managing of the production and ordering of feed used on a production farm. In the system in accordance with the invention, the production farms (30) have been provided with one or more silos provided with measurement sensors and with scales designed for weighing the animals. In addition, the production farms are provided with a telecommunication connection (31), via which the production farm (30) is connected to a public network (33). Via a public network the production farm (30) communicates with the information system (32) of the farm, which is typically a regular computer, with the information system (34) of the feed supplier and with the information system (37) of the refinery/slaughterhouse. Alarm limits are determined for the degree of filling of the silo and as the degree of filling is lowered below the alarm limit, the animals are weighed and both the farm owner and the supplier are notified of the matter. In this manner, the supplier can determine the composition and amount of the feed to be produced and reserve the transportation capacity needed for the feed delivery.

Description

METHOD FOR MANAGING THE PRODUCTION OF FEED USED IN A PRODUCTION UNIT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the managing of the production of feed used on animal farms. The invention concerns an automated method and system for managing the production of feed in a manner enabling optimisation of the growth of animals or the quality of their yields .

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The breeding of animals on production farms is performed as an accurately controlled contractual production. Meat production is a long chain having as the initial end the production farm itself and as the final end the consumer. It is important that the processes of the production chain such as the growth of animals, delivery to the slaughterhouse and butchery are performed in a continuous chain at the right mo- ment of time. At present, the trend in the farms is towards bigger farm sizes. As the production farms are increased in size, the volume of the production chain is also increased, resulting in more complicated processes. Often as the farms are increased in size, the number of people working on a farm is not increased, so the responsibilities of the farm owner grow bigger. The responsibilities of the farm owner include, in addition to the actual agricultural activities, also business operations, and to run them, the farm owner often uses a computer and an internet access. A typical task included in the business operations of a farm owner is to order feed.

Pig farms produce pork meat . A part of the pig farms keeps sows the piglets farrowed by whom can be bred in the farm until they are sold to a slaughterhouse, or the piglets can be sold at the age of a couple of months to a pig fattening house. The big fattening houses breed pigs an average of 100 days from a piglet weighing 25 kg even to a pig weighing 100 kg. Poultry farms can be specialised e.g. as poultry breeding farms, egg laying poultry houses or chicken rearing farms. In Finland, ducks, geese, turkeys, quails and ostriches are also bred. A broiler is a fast-growing chicken which is refined for meat pro- duction and which is bred in about five weeks from a chick weighing 40 grams to a broiler weighing 1.8 kg that is big enough to be butchered. The broilers are bred in heated and air-conditioned buildings where automatic devices take care of hygienic provision of feed and water.

In meat production it is extremely important that the animals to be bred fall within the weight curve set for them, or are preferably slightly above the weight curve. The growth objectives can include, for example, a weight curve defined by slaughterhouses/refineries or a quality level based on which the refinery/slaughterhouse determines the moment of time and/or quality of the animals or the delivery of their yields. The targets set by a refin- ery/slaughterhouse can also include quality requirements associated with the yields of the animals, such as eggs and milk. The fatty acid composition of egg yolk can be improved by means of feed given to chickens by adding particular vegetable oils to the feeds. The feed given to cows can, in turn, also change the composition of milk yielded by them.

The refinery/slaughterhouse can also request certain kind of uniform quality in the yields of animals such as in the properties of meat. One such prop- erty, for example, in the broiler production is leg and breast parts as equal in size as possible. One important objective in the meat production of a produc- tion farm is thus as uniform livestock as possible. The animals to be bred for the meat production can be weighed, for example, once a week, enabling one to monitor their growth process. The weighing tells us at what point of the weight curve we are each time. If the animals are clearly above the growth curve, then the feeding can be regulated, for example, by giving to the animal feed having a different composition. The animals are given feed which is balanced in content and corresponds to the feed requirements of each animal in their different development and production phases, the feed enabling one to achieve optimal growth, utilisation of feed and productivity.

During the breeding several different kinds of feed can be used. For example, pigs can be fed with two kinds of feed, with one intended for the initial breeding and the other intended for the end breeding. In order to keep the growth of the animals within the growth curves, the animals shall not be in a shortage of nutrients, but there must not be an excess of them with respect to the need. To optimise the growth, people have started to use mixtures of feeds so that the growth period of an animal is divided, for example, into four parts. In the beginning of the growth pe- riod, the animals are given feed that is rich in nutritional value, at the end of the growth period non- nutritious feed, and between these a mixture of these two feeds .

The farm owner orders each feed delivery separately, although delivery contracts are made even for a year. Orders are often placed at the last moment, so optimal planning of deliveries is often difficult, sometimes even impossible, although for a farm, an impulse to order is a routine measure . When placing an order, the farm owner checks the amount of feed and decides the size of the next order. When placing the order, the farm owner can also make changes to the quality of feed or to the feed mixture.

When feeding the animals with more than one feed mixture, the animal can be fed in a manner better suiting its need of that moment and with a product designed for the growth period in question. The growth result is good and the animal's growth potential is entirely utilised; and additional nutrients are not wasted in the environment. The present arrangement in management and delivery of feed is problematic, especially for logistics reasons. As the feed orders are placed at the last moment, the delivery trucks cannot be filled optimally. This incurs expenses in the delivery of feed. A feeding that takes into account the different growth periods of animals uses client-specific feeds, which are manufactured by a feed plant according to the requirements and/or formula given by the client. Client-specific feeds are manufactured by add- ing to a finished or semi-finished feed components that the clients wants, which are used to achieve the desired properties differing from processed feed. The feed must enable an optimal growth and output.

With the meat production of both poultry and other animals complicated contracts are associated/ most of them being time-bound. For example, broiler meat must be ordered to the shop selves in about a day. Within this day, all the procedures must be carried out on a minute-by-minute basis according to the drafted contracts. As the basis for payment of the animals delivered by production farms, or as the basis for payment of the yields of the animals, may function, for example, the size or quality of a yield, or the delivering of the yields to the refin- ery/slaughterhouse at a point of time most accurately agreed upon. International published application WO 03/038595 discloses a method for managing the feeding of the animals of a farm. The method enables one to order feed or to change the feeding. In the method, information is gathered on the animals of a farm and on their feeding. The information can be sent to a remote device, which can be, for example, the computer of a factory, a feed supplier, a veterinarian, a nutritionist or a farmer. The information can be proc- essed on the remote device and based on it one can determine whether there is a need on the farm, for example, for a veterinarian, or whether the feeding shall be changed.

OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention is to disclose a new type of automated management system of feed production. One specific objective of the invention is to simplify and facilitate the controlling of feed production by optimising the regulation of the growth of animals and/or the regulation of the quality of their yields. Further, the objective of the invention is to facilitate the management of feed production and deliveries and to offer to the farm, based on the yield of the animals being bred, feed that suits the growth period and/or the growth objectives of the animals or the quality objectives of their yields. The invention enables one to achieve for the livestock of a production farm specialised in meat production a growth of uniform quality at the right moment of time, enabling one to arrange the livestock for butchery at the right moment of time.

The objective of the invention is to disclose an automated method and system for the management of feed production that enable optimisation of the regulation of the yield of the animals, such as the weight of the beef cattle to be bred for meat production or the quality of eggs and milk yielded by it. A feed supplier can use the method of the invention to evaluate the content, size and point of time of the orders and to evaluate the need for the feed to be stored/prepared. The workload (for example, feed orders or monitoring of growth curves) of the farmer of a production farm is also facilitated. In addition, the refinery/slaughterhouse knows the exact time of delivery of the yields ordered by it, and can change it according to its needs. The refiner can also change the target level previously given by it to the growth and/or quality of the animals or their yields.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Thanks to the present invention, the production of feed used on an animal farm can be better managed, and no unnecessary surplus production is left in the stores of feed manufactures. The feed manufacturing and deliveries can be planned for each farm spe- cifically and economically taking into account the quality and needs of the animal material, the size of the feed stores and freight transportations. Further, the feed production can be planned beforehand according to a feeding method that takes into account an op- timal target growth and the size of the store.

When the supplier is able to monitor the growth of the animals being bred on a production, farm or the quality of their yields and when they are familiar with the growth and quality objectives set for them, they are able to determine the need for composition of the feed. Based on the surface of a feed silo, the supplier is able to foresee the arrival of the feed order _,from each farm and to prepare themselves to this by preparing the necessary feed. The objective of the invention is to disclose a new type of automated management method and system of feed production. The following example describes the management method of feed production in accordance with the invention, wherein the production farm is specialised in meat production. In the description, a farm is used to mean the actual main building of a farm that can be located rather far from the actual production farm. As used in this example, a production farm refers to breeding facilities of animals such as a barn. In the system as shown in the invention, the farm has a computer connected to the Internet, which is provided with a telecommunication connection to the production facilities of the farm. Preferably, this telecommunication connection is an Internet access arranged over the GPRS (General Packet Radio System) .

As for the features characteristic of the in- vention, reference is made to them in the claims.

The refinery/slaughterhouse agrees with the production farm upon the delivery time and growth and/or quality requirements of the livestock or yields delivered by a production farm. On production farms, the feeding portions of the animals are taken from a silo such as a feed silo, which is provided with measurement devices such as sensors. Sensors are used to measure the amount of feed in a silo. The amount of feed can also be meas- ured using other measurement devices arranged in conjunction with the production farms, such as measurement sensors of feeding dispensers. For a silo, several different alarm limits can be determined. These can include warning, preliminary order and order lim- its. In that case, as the surface of the silo is lowered below the warning level, the farm owner would be notified of the lowering of the surface of the silo.

In case some of the aforementioned limits are not reached, it can be checked whether the previously agreed delivery time still holds. The animals can be weighed automatically using scales installed on the animal farm and the growth can be compared to the given growth curve. By comparing the weight of the animals to the desired growth curve, the composition of the next feed can be determined. The refinery/slaughterhouse can determine changes desired by them in the desired growth and/or quality curve. Instead of weighing, the quality of eggs or milk can also be measured, and the composition of feed can be determined based on these measurements and the targets set to them. Within the preliminary order limit, the information about the lowering of the surface and the weight of the animals at that moment would also be transmitted to the feed supplier, enabling them to reserve transportation capacity for the feed order. At this point it is not yet necessary to known what feed sort will be ordered, rather a preliminary estimate of the order size is sufficient. When the order limit is reached, the system orders the products because this means that the feed is running out. As the preliminary order limit is exceeded, information can be transmitted on the weighted animals or on the measurements of the quality of their yields directly to the suppliers and/or to the refinery/slaughterhouse.

The quality of the feed to be delivered from the feed plant to a production farm, such as the amount of energy or nutrients, can be determined based on the information that is based on the production phase of the farm animals, for example, based on the information about the feed consumption and weight curves, as well as based on the history information of the feed lot and/or on the growth objectives. For example, the moment of time of that moment of the growth objectives of beef cattle can be determined at the point of time of ordering based on the age and weight of the animals or based on the new growth objectives obtained from the refinery/slaughterhouse. When the warning limit is reached, the system may suggest a feed amount or quality. If the farm owner so wishes, he or she can modify the suggestion or approve or disapprove it as it is. The farm owner can also determine the order so that an approved order is placed already as the preliminary order limit is met. In that case the feed supplier is given more time for planning the delivery of the order.

The system can send a report of the situation also to the refinery/slaughterhouse presenting the progress of the yield in question with respect to the expectations of the ordering refinery. The report of the situation can include the progress of the weight of the animals with respect to a predefined growth curve or the improving of the quality of the milk of dairy cattle according to the expectations. The refinery can change the growth objectives according to their own needs and send new growth objectives to the owner of a production farm and/or to the feed manufac- turer. The refinery is able to determine even quite accurately the size and moment of time of a cargo arriving from a production farm.

The present invention considerably improves the management of the feed production of a feed plant and that of the feed orders and deliveries of production farms. The present invention facilitates the ordering and manufacturing of the desired feed mixture that takes into account the growth curve of the animals or the quality of their yields according to prac- tical need. Further, by means of the invention cost savings are achieved both thanks to the facilitating of the management of the logistics and to the reduction of time taken by the ordering.

The present invention considerably improves the dependability of the entire production chain. The production farm is able to obtain the feed needed by it for the feeding of the animas in time, and no un- necessary surplus feed is left in the stores of a feed plant. Furthermore, the growth of the animals and/or the quality of their yields can be optimised, whereby the refinery/slaughterhouse is able to get the animals desired by them and/or the yields of them at a given point of time and of the quality desired by them.

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1 represents one growth curve set for the animals beforehand;

Fig. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment according to the invention; and Fig. 3 represents one system according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Fig. 1 represents the growth curve determined for a chicken to be bred, such as a broiler. A broiler is bred so as to be a broiler that weighs about 1.8 kilos and is big enough to be butchered in about five weeks. If the animals are clearly above the growth curve, the feeding can be regulated e.g. by giving feed that is lower-energy in nutritional content. If the animals, in turn, are clearly below the growth curve, then when ordering the next feed cargo, a feed that is richer in nutritional content can be ordered. In the growth curve as shown in Fig. 1, the growth period has been separated into five periods, in each of which, the animals can be given feed having a slightly different composition. Applying the same principle, a curve corresponding to the one shown in Fig. 1 can be drafted to indicate the quality of a yield of an animal, such as the amount of omega fatty acid contained in eggs, or the quality of milk. Fig. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment according to the invention. The initial impulse of the method is produced by the unit to be measured. Typically, the unit to be measured is a feed silo that measures the amount of feed, step 20. Set in the unit to be measured are one or more alarm limits, to which the measurement result is compared, step 21. If the alarm limit has not been exceeded, ones moves back to measuring. The measurement can be continuous, or can be repeated at given intervals, for example at an interval of an hour. In continuous meas- urement, the unit to be measured sends a notification when the measurement limit is not met. Preferably, the unit to be measured gives the alarm so that in addition to the notification of the fact that the limit was not met, a notification informing what limit was not met is sent, step 22. After the alarm limit has been exceeded, the animals are weighed automatically, or the result of the last weighing is taken into account, step 23, after which the notification is transferred to telecommunication means, step 24. Instead of weighing it is also possible to measure the quality of a yield of an animal at the point of time in question, such as the quality of eggs or milk.

As the telecommunication means it is possible to use any means suitable for the farm, such as a lo- cal area network or a GPRS connection. The telecommunication means are not of much importance from the point of view of the functionality of the embodiment. As there can be several different alarm limits, it must be checked whether a notification informing of the exceeding of the alarm limit and of the measurement of a yield of an animal at that specific moment is sent to the supplier.

The measurement result, such as the weight of an animal, is compared to predefined growth objectives and a report informing of the progress of the result is sent to the feed manufacturer and/or refinery/slaughterhouse 25. If connected to the alarm limit is the sending of a preliminary notification, then it is sent immediately, step 26. Based on the information contained in the preliminary notification, a request for confir- mation is created, step 27. A request for confirmation can be created even if a preliminary notification was not sent. The request for confirmation is, however, not obligatory. The farm owner is also notified of the exceeding of the alarm limit and of the measurement of a yield of an animal such as the weight, step 28. Preferably, this information is a request for confirmation, which can be changed, approved or disapproved as such by the farm owner. If the request for confirmation is approved by the farm owner, a confirmation is transmitted to the supplier, step 29. There may be even a longer interval between the preliminary notification and the order confirmation. In the preliminary notification, the estimation of the order date and/or of the amount of the product to be ordered is of more importance. This makes it possible for the supplier to save on delivery costs by optimising the production and delivery with the other deliveries to the same area.

Fig. 3 shows one system in accordance with the invention. The refinery/slaughterhouse 37 determines for the delivery a certain moment of time, which is determined based on the needs of the refinery's own. The animals must be at a certain point of the growth curve, and all the individuals in a certain livestock must be as equal in weight as possible. With this order, the refinery sets the final point (moment of time and desired weight of the animals) of the de-^' sired growth curve, and the farm owner tries to breed the animals to suit this final point, as accurately as possible. The target given by the refinery can also include the quality level of a yield of an animal . The embodiment of Fig. 3 is preferably a feed order system in which there is a feeding system provided with measurement sensors arranged in a production farm 30. The system typically consists of a feed silo having a measurement sensor and the sensors needed in the measurement of the animals. The production farm 30 may be provided with a plurality of sensors, so by utilising the same telecommunications system 31 also other production information can be trans- mitted.

In the figure, the animals on the production farm 30 are automatically weighed using the scales disposed in the room for animals. The weighing can be trigged by an alarm caused by the lowering of the sur- face of the feed silo, but the weighing can also be performed automatically at regular intervals. The measured weight of the animals is compared to the weight in accordance with the expectations of the given growth curve, and the nutrition needed by them is determined based on this.

The telecommunication system 31 is preferably a GPRS modem or the like. In that case, there is no need to provide the production farm with an expensive cable connection, and the connection is open at all times for sending information. A GPRS system suits well also due to the small need for capacity provided by the invention. Information is sent from the production farm 30 only when the alarm limit is exceeded. The GPRS system transmits the information further via the Internet 33.

Depending on the information to be transmitted, the information is transmitted to the farm 32 and to the server 34 of the supplier. The information to be transmitted from the sensors disposed on the pro- auction farm 30 can also include a report informing of the weight of the livestock that was weighed, which is transmitted to the server 37 of the slaughter- house/refinery. If it is necessary for the refinery to change the delivery time, it can send to the owner of the production farm and/or directly to the feed manufacturer new production objectives with changes in the delivery time and possibly also in some of the quality criteria. If the report of the situation is also sent to the refinery, then it knows at what point of the growth curve the animals are and can make preliminary measures to deliver the finished product to the con- sumer. Based on the growth objectives and phase, it is possible to determine the composition of the necessary feed and/or the mixing ratio of the feeds to be used in the manufacture, which is automatically ordered by the production farm 30 from the feed supplier when the feed in the silo is running out . This enables one to order feed with an optimal composition to implement the growth curve .

Typically, all the transmitted information is transmitted to the farm 32, in order for the owner to be able to monitor the processes on the production farm in real time. In addition to the management of orders, this also improves the management of the farm on general level. If the owner so wishes, he or she can request different information about the production farm, and the existing equipment can measure, for example, the level of the surface of a feed silo, although the alarm limit would not have been exceeded.

Besides the owner, the information is also transmitted to the server 34 of the supplier, if nec- essary. On the server 34 of the supplier there is an order management system based on which the supplier is able to regulate the need for feed production. The supplier is also able to automatically optimise the goods transportation to the farm. Connected to the system is a terminal device 35, which the supplier can use to modify the order in a manner desired by them. In this manner the owner can be offered personal cus- tomer service. This can include, for example, recommendations of an expert when modifying the feed mixture .

Besides the terminal device, external systems 36 can be connected to the server 34. Systems of this kind can include, for example, production control, production follow-up, billing and other reporting services. As the information is better available, the external systems can benefit from the automation of feed delivery and follow-up of consumption. The service provider can report, for example, of the consumption of feed on a farm such that the consumption of feed has been classified daily without the owner participating in gathering the information. The invention is not limited merely to the examples of its embodiments referred to above; instead many variations are possible within the scope of the inventive idea defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A method for managing the feed to be used on an animal farm, the method comprising the steps of: determining the objectives for the yield of the animals of a production farm based on the target level obtained from a refinery/slaughterhouse; measuring the degree of filling of the feed silo of a production farm; measuring the yield of the animals; c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the method further comprises the steps of: determining one or more alarm limits to the degree of filling of the feed silo; comparing the measured yield of the animals to the determined objectives; determining the need for feed to be delivered based on the degree of filling of the feed silo and on the result given by the comparison; creating a preliminary order report as the degree of filling of the feed silo exceeds the alarm limit ; transmitting the preliminary order report to a predefined address,- and managing the feed production to manufacture the feed determined in the preliminary order report.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the need for feed comprises the composition and amount of feed.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the measured yield of the animals includes the weight of the animals and/or the amount/quality of the eggs or milk yielded by them.

4. The method as defined in any one of the preceding claims 1-3, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in. that new objectives for the yield of the animals are received from the refinery/slaughterhouse.

5. The method as defined in any one of the preceding claims 1-4, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that a report informing of the measured yield of the ani- mals and of the progress thereof with respect to the objectives is transmitted to the refinery/slaughterhouse .

6. The method as defined in any one of the preceding claims 1-5, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that a preliminary order report is transmitted to the production farm.

7. The method as defined in any one of the preceding claims 1-6, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the supplier is sent an acknowledgment of approval of the preliminary order.

8. The method as defined in any one of the preceding claims 1-6, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that a refusal to accept the preliminary order is sent .

9. The method as defined in any one of the preceding claims 1-7, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the preliminary order is changed prior to sending an acknowledgement .

10. A system for managing the production of feed used on an animal farm, the system comprising: a production farm (30) to be measured; a server (34) of the feed manufacturer, which is connected to a public network (33) ; an information system (32) of the farm, which is connected to a public network (33) ; c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the system further comprises: a server (37) of the slaughterhouse/refinery; a production farm (30) provided with one or more measurement sensors,- and a telecommunication system (31) for connecting the production farm to a public network (33) ;

11. The system as defined in claim 10, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that new objectives for the yield of the animals are received from the refinery/slaughterhouse.

12. The system as defined in any one of the preceding claims 10-11, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the information system (32) of the farm is arranged to send a report to the slaughterhouse/refinery (37) informing of the measured yield of the animals and of the progress thereof with respect to the determined objectives.

13. The system as defined in any one of the preceding claims 10-12, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the information system (34) of the supplier is arranged to draft a preliminary order report for the production farm.

14. The system as defined in any one of the preceding claims 10-13, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the information system (32) of the farm is ar- ranged to send an acknowledgement of approval of the preliminary order to the supplier.

15. The system as defined in any one of the preceding claims 10-13, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the information system (32) of the farm is ar- ranged to refuse the preliminary order.

16. The system as defined in any one of the preceding claims 10-14, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the information system (32) of the farm is arranged to specify the preliminary order prior to ac- knowledging.

17. A software product for controlling the production of feed used on an animal farm, the software product being arranged to: determine objectives for the yield of the animals of a production farm based on the target level given by the refinery/slaughterhouse; receive a measurement result indicating the degree of filling of the ensilage capacity of the feed silo of a production farm; receive a measurement result indicating the yield of the animals of a production farm; c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the software program is arranged to: determine one or more alarm limits for the degree of filling of the silo,- comparing the measured result of the animals to the determined objectives; determine the need for feed to be delivered based on the degree of filling of the feed silo and on the result of the comparison; create a preliminary order report as the degree of filling exceeds the alarm limit; transmitting the preliminary order report to a predefined address; control the feed production to produce the feed determined in the preliminary order report.

18. The software product as defined in claim 17, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the software product is arranged to create and transmit a report informing of the measured yield of the animals and of the progress thereof with respect to the determined objectives to the slaughterhouse/refinery.

19. The software product as defined in claim 17 or 18, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the software product is arranged to receive new objectives for the yield of the animals from the refinery/slaughterhouse.

20. The software product as defined in any one of the preceding claims 17-19, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the software product is arranged to transmit a preliminary order report to the production farm.

21. The software product as defined in any one of the preceding claims 17-20, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the software product is arranged to receive an acknowledgment of approval of the prelimi- nary order.

22. The software product as defined in any one of the preceding claims 17-20, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the software product is arranged to receive a refusal to accept the preliminary order.

23. The software product as defined in any one of the preceding claims 17-21, c h a r a c t e r i s e d in that the software product is arranged to receive a specified preliminary order.