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Engineering technologies enable real time information monitoring in pig production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

N. Bird ,
H. G. Crabtree  and
C. P. Schofield
N. Bird
Affiliation:
Farmex Ltd, Pingewood Business Estate, Pingewood, Reading, RG30 3UR, UK
H. G. Crabtree
Affiliation:
Farmex Ltd, Pingewood Business Estate, Pingewood, Reading, RG30 3UR, UK
C. P. Schofield
Affiliation:
Silsoe Research Institute, Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedford, MK45 4HS, UK
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Abstract

Reliable and affordable technology for collecting and managing livestock production process information is being developed. The advances in data measurement, collection and transfer technology enable us to retrieve information from one or more remote sites to be processed and managed centrally. This opens up the opportunity to advance from open loop, prescriptive production to closed loop systems where factors influencing the actual performance of animals are used to modify and improve their production parameters (feed, environment, medication). We strive from producing animals by predicting what is needed using outdated data, to measuring what is actually happening as they grow, processing this information and acting to optimise animal performance by modifying production parameters in real time.

This paper describes commercially available systems that make possible the retrieval, collection, processing and distribution of near real time production information. Various aspects of production management using this technology are discussed, and examples of how it can be applied to monitor water usage, how it relates to pig performance and how energy usage can be influenced, are considered.

Type
Offered Papers
Information
BSAP Occasional Publication , Volume 28: Integrated management systems for livestock , 2001 , pp. 105 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 2001

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References

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