MANAGEMENT ▶▶▶


Smart farming ideas for the swine industry


As the global population increases, meat consumption may increase by 73% by 2050. Therefore, pig producers will likely aim to maximise output per animal unit and to increase animal density. Smart farming emerged from the need to inform farmers frequently and in more detail about health, welfare and productivity. What is already available and what can be expected?


BY S. AZARPAJOUH, J.A. CALDERÓN DÍAZ, J. LEE, S. BUESO QUAN AND H. TAHERI* S Technology 3D printing


mart farming is the application of advanced tech- niques in livestock farming to monitor, model and manage animal production. Its aim is to increase the farmer’s ability to keep contact with individual ani-


Table 1 – Emerging technologies application in the swine industry.


Example of application in swine industry


Augmented reality Assembly line work during the production process Determining food safety Training tool for producers or processors


Artificial intelligence Analysing piglets’ squeals for distress Prompting sow to move to prevent piglet from smothering Detecting tail posture and alerting farmers when there is potential for increased tail biting


Printing plastic prototype machine parts Printing artificial organs for implants and surgery


Internet of things Using sensors to detect health, food and water intake, mobility, weight, air quality and coughing Offering a full line of pig-specific data for real time reporting, documenta- tion, and analysis Securely storing and transferring the information to users’ smart phones Offering an all-around technology solution for producers Enabling producers to track in real-time feed/water intake, to control temperatures and ventilation Connecting customers’ controllers, computers, and sensors to communicate Enabling managers to have 3D images of the farm to evaluate climate conditions and feed settings


30 ▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 37, No. 5/6, 2021


mals as livestock production intensifies. Using smart farming techniques, farmers can better monitor the needs of individu- al animals and adjust their management practices accordingly, thereby preventing health, welfare and management issues and enhancing herd health. A wide range of smart farming technologies is available that could be used in the swine in- dustry, particularly sensing and monitoring technologies such as accelerometers, pressure mats and force plates, micro- phones, cameras and radio frequency identification (RFID).


Sensing and monitoring technologies Accelerometers are electronic sensors that allow continuous recording and characterise changes in activity data by meas- uring motion parameters. They are relatively inexpensive and can be fixed to different body areas such as the legs, neck and ears. Some challenges may be encountered to keep them mounted on an animal due to husbandry conditions and the pigs’ exploratory behaviour. Accelerometers can be used to detect early lameness by identifying changes in posture and stepping behaviour in sows. Pressure mats analyse sow gait patterns to provide reliable lameness indicators such as lower walking speed, shorter stride length and longer stance time. Force plates measure weight distribution of legs and can be used to assess lameness by identifying differences in weight bearing between legs, as lame animals are reluctant to bear weight on affected limbs. These kinds of measures are objec- tive and highly replicable. Microphones can be used for objective, non-invasive meas- urement for stress recognition and disease surveillance in various farming environments. Microphones have been used to detect stress vocalisations (e.g. screams) and to identify pig-wasting diseases using sound data in audio surveillance systems. They have also been used to describe acoustic fea- tures of cough sounds caused by lung infection to develop a real-time cough classification algorithm based on sound fea- ture analysis of respiratory disease and to objectively meas- ure any deviation from normal respiratory pattern. Digital video-based tracking systems are inexpensive, reliable and accurate in monitoring performance, health and welfare indicators in pigs. For example, cameras can be used to accu- rately estimate body weight by measuring dimensions such as heart girth, length and height, and to measure thermal com-


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