Farmscape for September 13, 2017
An Ontario Pork Producer is demonstrating the value of new technology that allows constant monitoring of production.
Innovation and Technology In the Barn was among the topics discussed yesterday in Winnipeg as part of a group sow housing seminar hosted by the Prairie Swine Centre, Swine Innovation Porc and CDPQ.
John Van Engelen, with Hog-Tied Farms in Lambton County, Ontario, says the adoption of Wi-Fi technology, which links equipment in the barn to his computer and his cell phone, has allowed constant monitoring.
Clip-John Van Engelen-Hog-Tied Farms:
I have Wi-Fi throughout the barn and I have a program that goes with my ESF.
I can have the program on my phone as I walk through the sows and see how the sows are doing.
If I have a problem with a sow I can actually get her records up on my phone and access to see what's going on with that sow or if there's a problem with that sow.
Basically you're monitoring with RFID technology the growth rates of the pigs so you can actually monitor the poor ones and the bad ones and actually pick out the sick ones that way.
I'm using my sorters as phase feeding so I can feed exactly the feed to the requirement of their weight so you're using your sorters all the time instead of just using them when you're ready to ship pigs.
I'm actually doing dual feed systems in my ESF so I'm actually feeding two different feeds to my dry sows.
On the third parity plus sows I'm doing experimenting right now, feeding them lower protein to day 85 and then day 85 they get the upper scale protein.
I'm tracking average daily gains with pig performance testers.
I have RFID technology on my sorters so I can actually track individual animals on the sorters.
That's the technology that basically actually makes your operation more efficient and see where your problems are.
Van Engelen suggests technology will be key to keeping the next generation interested in farming.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork
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