SBIR-STTR Award

Raising pigs has become a specialized agribusiness. Pork producers have a desire to improve their efficiency of production in a cost effective manner. One tool to accomplish this is knowing the weight of the pig as it grows. This knowledge provides greater assistance in managing the feeding program as well as avoiding financial penalties when marketing. Feed costs account for 60% of the cost production and improving feeding program management can provide far reaching improvement in profitability. Packing firms, who purchase and process pigs for consumption, financially penalize the swine producer if the weight of a pig is not within specified guidelines. However, routinely weighing pigs is a laborious, time consuming task which can take away from other needed duties on the swine farm. Our approach is to develop an automated weighing system that will provide the swine producer the needed information to effectively manage the farm's feeding program and to identify which pigs would meet market weight guidelines to minimize financial penalties.Applications:An automated weighing system would provide the pork producer accurate pigs weights in a more timely manner while minimizing labor needs to acquire this information. This system would help individual pork producers use their feed resources in a more cost effective manner. At the same time this system would provide information to market pigs so to achieve maximum receipts per pig sold.

Pork production is a highly competitive market as indicated by a 40% reduction in the number of hog operations between 1993 and 1996 alone. Providing a lean animal of the desired size to a packer can be a competitive advantage for any size operation. One way to achieve these goals is with an automatic weighing system. Automatic weighing equipment reduces labor and disturbs animals less. Together, weighing equipment and PC software can track animal growth and optimize marketing. Accurate growth measures can also improve scheduling of phased feeding. Properly scheduled phased feeding reduces feed costs and pollution problems associated with overfeeding proteins. Individual weight tracking can also identify health problems earlier and improve genetic selection. The objectives of this project are to: 1) Develop a sound mechanical design for automatic weighing equipment. 2) Develop the electronics and embedded firmware to control automatic weighing equipment. 3) Develop the PC software required to manage and utilize automatic weighing equipment. 4) Field test the equipment and new procedures necessary to encourage all animals to use automatic weighing equipmentApplications:Scales and computer programs will be developed to automatically measure and analyze individual animal weights in a pen. This will reduce the labor and stress involved of handling the animals. The weights collected will be analyzed in software to optimally plan marketing strategies. Individual and pen weight tracking can also be used for improved scheduling of phased feeding. Properly scheduled phased feeding reduces feed costs, produces leaner animals, and reduces pollution. Individual weight tracking can also be used to identify health problems allowing earlier treatment, and to improve genetic selection.