DES MOINES, Iowa — Bringing Big Data into the sow barn would allow every sow to have a different ration.
If enough data collection and management are being done, a sow could live longer, eat less and help make a much better herd.
That’s what Curtiss Littlejohn was saying about the evolution of electronic sow feeders and what his company, Canarm, plans to offer producers.
“We are tailoring it down to what her exact requirements are on each day,” Littlejohn said as he stood at his booth at the World Pork Expo held earlier this summer in Des Moine.
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“Precision feeding involves looking at the sow on an almost daily basis to determine where she is in terms of her body, weight gain, back fat deposition, and correctly building a ration for her on that day that will most benefit her, her litter and her future productivity.”
In crop farming, Big Data collects large amounts of information about the land, crop conditions and the weather to allow customized treatment that exactly fits the crop’s needs.
It appears to be developing the same way in the hog barn by allowing pig-by-pig management differences.
Littlejohn’s company, based in Ontario, offers electronic sow feeders that can provide different levels of four main feed components to individual sows.
Not only can the system be customized to provide a general ration for the herd based on its overall state, but it can also provide specific rations for each pig.
“You could have 2,000 sows with 2,000 individual portions,” said Littlejohn.
However, doing that right re-quires heavy commitment by the producer. Data must be relentlessly gathered so that day-by-day comparisons of an animal’s weight gain, back fat levels and condition can form an ongoing series of information that will highlight when a problem develops.
University of Guelph researchers are digging into the results of finely tuned feeding changes provided in sow rations, which will help refine customized feeding.
Littlejohn said the data-gathering demands are significant, but the gains could be tremendous.
“We can’t accommodate for disease or injury or those sorts of things, but we know that if that animal is properly prepared and she’s the proper weight and the proper size, we know how much she milked off in her lactation, we can rebuild that precisely,” said Littlejohn.
The result should be a pig that feeds efficiently, has better litters and lasts for more pregnancies.
“We can have a lower impact on the environment, we can have a better impact on the sow’s longevity and life, and we can save a lot of money.”
Far from being just a response to the end of gestation stalls, electronic sow feeders are now the core of precision feeding systems.
“This is the complete integration of data on the farm.”
