Pig farmers can use Smart Stall technology to monitor what the climate is like in the stall. It gives entrepreneurs insight into temperature, relative humidity, air pressure and CO 2 levels in the pig houses.
The figures give pig farmers more control over the pigs' production conditions and the ability to make timely adjustments when necessary. After all, an optimal climate in the house is an important condition for animal health and welfare
Supplier association StarFarmers was given access to the results of Measuring is Knowing at its general members' meeting . This project, set up with Connecting Agri & Food, the scheme Supporting Chain Concepts and slaughterhouse group Vion, aims to gain even more insight into the climate in the house. At 22 participating pig farmers, the climate in the pig house was mapped.
Stable climate
The project provides insight on the stability of the climate in the barn. The group of pig farmers knows differences in the level and stability of humidity and CO 2 content in the barn. The concrete recommendations to participants are about adjusting the climate policy in the pig house depending on measured values and current settings. "That is, for example, adjusting the course of the target temperature during the round so that the temperature in the section is reduced more as the animals get older and heavier," says consultant Harm van der Zanden of Connecting Agri & Food.
Lowering or raising the temperature or ventilating more at the end of a round also play a role in an optimal barn climate. "Practical advice included increasing the minimum ventilation to the advisory level so that CO2 and temperature drop more and increasing the maximum ventilation because it was set too low, making it too hot in the department," says Van der Zanden. Some participating pig farmers were able to actively manage data. As a result, they observed observable improved values.
Chain profiles of rearing and fattening pigs
The sensors in the barns of participating pig farmers will remain in place for further research into the barn climate. Starting in May, chain profiles will be drawn up where pig farmers in StarfFarmers will be able to relate data on slaughter findings at the department level to the department climate and medicine use of the pigs during the fattening pig and piglet rearing phases.
The chain profiles give the sow farmer and finishing pig farmer opportunities to further align their management.
The Smart Barn project also investigates the link between the quality of the final product ex-farm and the interplay of climate management and medicine use. Based on analysis, participants are offered tools for improvement.
Smart Farming in the barn is emerging
Wageningen UR's report Smart farming in pig production also shows what is possible to give pig farmers insight into the barn climate. Such as automatic climate controllers that automatically control the barn climate where the systems take into account indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity or day and night rhythms.
And there are more smart technology inventions to monitor the animals in the pig house. With this, the pig farming of the future can do more than what is done today.
This allows pig farmers to track each pig from birth to slaughter. For example, sows are now given an ear tag, with or without an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chip. A pig farmer can track those sows exactly how often they access a feeding station and how much an animal has eaten. He can combine this data with other data including date of birth, weight, growth, breed or use of antibiotics. Sows can already be tracked at individual level in this way.
For most fattening pigs, however, this is not the case at present. When the animals arrive at the slaughterhouse, it is usually no longer known which farm they come from and what their weight is. With new applications, the links in the pork chain could collect more data for reasons of efficiency and transparency.
Cough detection and sorting systems are some of the smart farming applications that pig farmers can deploy. When a pig has a cough, a pig farmer receives a signal on his smartphone. Sorting systems allow pigs to be fed automatically according to their needs.
The pig farmer of the future will use such smart technologies much more.
