SMART FARMING ▶▶▶
An extra pair of eyes in the truck
Cows and other livestock are travellers these days, being brought from one farm to the other – or to the slaughterhouse. Welfare during transport is important. A new tool can help to oversee and respond quickly should conditions change.
BY TREENA HEIN, INDEPENDENT FREELANCE JOURNALIST T
TG sensors cur- rently monitor humidity and temperature, but could in fu- ture also track
things like CO2 level and accel- eration/braking.
ransport represents a point in a farmed animal’s life when many experts say welfare is most at risk. This is why technology to prevent welfare issues during transport is being developed. A patented Canadian
real-time alert system is just being launched by the makers of Be Seen, Be Safe.
Quick reference tool Tim Nelson, president & CEO of Be Seen Be Safe, says the idea for the system came to him a few years ago when he was working for the Poultry Industry Council in Canada, during the design and delivery of a quick reference tool to help pro- ducers decide if chickens should be transported. “It occurred to me at the time that the decision regarding bird condition and transport really rests with the producers,” he explains, “and it’s the last time producers have any control over the quality of their product that they have spent weeks nurturing and producing and years in establishing a system in which to grow those birds.”
Mr Nelson adds that “the same is true for pretty much all live- stock. When I worked with cattle, it was broken legs, with pigs it’s poor quality meat and heart attacks, and these things happen to perfectly healthy animals which should theoreti- cally be able to withstand transport. I looked at the EU, same story. I looked at the US, worse.” Another part of Nelson’s thinking was that transport is the only place where livestock management is exposed to the general public and it should therefore be as good as possible as that’s a point where activ- ists focus. “I wondered if it was possible to fit trucks with monitors that would warn the drivers and logistics supervi- sors of impending problems so that they can make changes to avert welfare disasters,” he says, “or at the very least put the receiving processing plant on notice that a potential- ly-compromised load is coming in, “so they can organise quick unloading, lairage facilities on stand-by and so on.”
Full environmental control Mr Nelson notes that in the EU, trucks are now being devel- oped which are fully environmentally controlled, but they are very, very expensive. “However, there are millions of transport vehicles around the world that could be upgraded to monitor conditions and if the monitoring connects through an IoT (In- ternet of Things) device to climate control devices (misters, fans, baffles to guide wind, etc.), the system could control en- vironmental conditions as well,” he explains. “Working with my business partner Joel Sotomayor and his brilliant young team, it became clear that there are technologies available that can be used to not only monitor and send alerts, but also to utilise IoT devices to control environment conditions.”
Sensor enabling to make better decisions The result is Transport Genie (TG), an innovative sensor that enables livestock transport managers and drivers to make better decisions in relation to trailer environmental condi- tions, set up automated systems to adjust conditions when they approach a threshold) and to track data over time. TG sensors currently monitor humidity and temperature, but could in future also track things like CO2
level and accelera-
tion/braking. The development of TG was partly supported through the Accelerating Innovative Research programme through the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Sotomayor notes that the technology can be used for
14 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 5, No. 4, 2018
PHOTO: TREENA HEIN
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