‘Pig face recognition’ cleans up farms
Print Edition
Face and sound recognition, robot assistants, cameras, sensors, blockchain. These new technologies are breaking the stereotype of stinky, messy pig farms and transforming China’s pig-raising industry.
In a pig farm of Jingqishen Organic Agriculture Co Ltd in northeast China’s Jilin Province, a specially designed overhead 3D camera can recognize the number of pigs in the pen with a single scan.
With the “pig face recognition” technology, each pig can be accurately identified by the feeding robot, which in turn offers individualized feeding plans.
Sun Yanchun, CEO of the company, said that they have cooperated with JD Digits to upgrade their pig farm with an intelligent stock breeding system, which functions as a “24-hour working veterinary.”
With voice recognition technology, the system analyzes the oinks of pigs and combines other data such as body temperature and food intake for disease detection, offering early warnings for the feeders to take action.
Better quality, lower costs
Sun said over 200 pig houses have been upgraded with the intelligent system in their breeding bases, which produce 200,000 pigs per year. The number is expected to reach 1 million in three years.
According to the statistics, the intelligent system has helped bring down the costs, with an estimated 18 million yuan (US$2.56 million) being saved every year.
The accurate feeding system saved about 10 percent of the pig feed and lowered the labor cost and reduced the damage caused by epidemics, Sun said.
It also helped ensure better pork quality due to a more balanced nutrient intake of pigs and less drug use throughout their life cycle, Sun added.
New technology such as artificial intelligence and blockchain has shown potential in transforming the pig-raising industry, according to a report on China’s smart pig farming released by the Agricultural Information Research Institute.
Pig identification is the basis to achieve precision management of a farm. Each pig has its own ID and information including breed, weight, feeding and estrous cycle recorded. The temperature, moisture and lighting can be tuned in real time and the system will draw a growth curve for every pig, providing a reference for precision breeding.
With cameras, sensors and other Internet of Things devices planted in pigpens, any deviation from the ideal situation can be monitored real-time and measures can be taken to prevent harm at the earliest possible instance.
Blockchain technology has also become a natural fit for smart pig farming.
As the demand for organic and premium quality products grows, pig farmers also have incentives to showcase a pig’s journey from farm to table.
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