Agriculture is increasingly supported by digital systems, which are also gaining ground in animal husbandry. At present, smart farming is mainly a big topic in dairy farming. But what about pig farming, and how can digital systems support farmers in this sector? Dr Marc Alexander Lieboldt and Dr Franz Lappe explored these questions in a webinar organised by the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture (LWK).

Digital systems support daily animal monitoring

"In general, the systems that are currently being developed and tested are intended to support farmers in their daily animal monitoring and decision-making, e.g. for treatments, but not to replace them," begins Dr Lieboldt from the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture in his presentation. The sensors and technologies that can be installed in barns in the future continuously record the actual situation in the barn. This means that the animals and their environment are also monitored when the farmer is not in the barn. By issuing early warning messages when the technology detects deviations, it should then be possible to identify diseases, behavioural abnormalities or changes in performance at an earlier stage and to respond to them. The data recorded includes, for example, noise patterns, air composition and animal activity.

In general, systems are currently being developed for the following areas:

• Heat detection
• Birth monitoring
• Animal behaviour
• Body weight/condition
• Movement, activity, lameness
• Selection
• Localisation, counting
• Vocalisation
• Water supply

The aim must be to link the data collected in the barn and evaluate it together so that the farmer can be given comprehensive recommendations for action. "But we are still working on that," reports Dr Lieboldt. The systems and sensors first have to learn the complex behaviour of pigs before they can be put into operation. Later, it should be possible to collect and evaluate data by pen or on an individual animal basis.

Sensor-based early warning system

Under the leadership of Dr Lieboldt, the pig research station of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture in Wehnen is also working closely with universities and non-university research institutions on digitalisation in pigsties. The BMEL-funded "DigiSchwein" project is working on a sensor-based early warning and decision support system that will be tested under practical conditions after its experimental development. The general aim of the project is to summarise the data collected in the barn by the various sensors in such a way that the farmer automatically receives recommendations for action from the system.

At the pig research station in Wehnen, the fattening and rearing pens as well as the farrowing pens have been renovated and equipped with a wide variety of sensors and technologies. Among other things, the following systems are being used:

• Thermal imaging cameras for measuring body temperature
• RGB cameras for activity detection and farrowing
• 3D cameras for recording the weight of the animals
• Harmful gas sensors

If you would like to get a more detailed picture of the barn and the sensors installed, you can do so by taking a virtual tour of the barn at Pig Farming Research Station (matterport.com).

The project also focuses on the degree of contamination of the technology in the barn. Among other things, it observes whether cameras are contaminated by flies and how the systems cope with dust and harmful gas pollution in the barn.

Finally, Dr Lieboldt once again makes it clear that digitalisation is not a sure-fire success and is still in its infancy in the pig sector. However, if the systems work well, they can support farmers in meeting the growing challenges of pig farming and have a positive impact on animal health and welfare. However, it will still take some time before more complex systems are mature and economically attractive to farmers.

Image evaluation of camera systems

In the second part of the webinar, Dr. Franz Lappe from the company "Vivet Ihre Tiermediziner GmbH" reported on his experiences with image analysis from cameras. He uses this to determine the causes of caudophagia (tail biting). At the beginning of his presentation, he makes it clear that caudophagia can occur in pigs of all ages. However, biting most frequently occurs during pre-fattening, i.e. up to approx. 60 kg live weight. The triggers for these outbreaks of tail biting can have various causes, such as husbandry, feeding, genetics or health. Many experiments have already been conducted to identify the triggers for tail or ear biting, but it has never been possible to determine THE one cause. Dr Lappe, however, never wanted to accept the occurrence of tail biting, but sought a solution to uncover problems in the farms. He recognised that the behaviour of the pigs changes abruptly when someone enters the barn, which makes it difficult to observe tail biting directly. The animals then observe the person entering and are distracted from their normal activity. So the vet obtained a camera to observe the animals' behaviour uninfluenced over several hours.

When viewing these video recordings, he noticed three different types of biting. Firstly, there was two-stage biting, in which the pigs exhibited exploratory and rooting behaviour that culminated in biting. Secondly, there was sudden biting, which often occurs when resources are scarce. And last but not least, there was obsessive biting. Here, caudophagia occurs for no apparent reason.

Dr Lappe still evaluates the video recordings manually, which takes a lot of time. He mainly looks at the sequences in which the animals are active. Once the time at which the biting occurs has been identified, the search for the cause begins in the barn.

The vet says that he looks after a number of farms where tail biting occurs during or shortly before or after feeding. If this is the case, it should be checked whether there are enough feeding places and whether the liquid feed is too diluted. If tail biting occurs repeatedly throughout the day and the animals defecate in the middle of the pen, it may be that the air flow is uncomfortable for the animals.

Another point he has observed is that the animals sometimes eat their feed too quickly, so that it cannot be pre-digested in the stomach. The undigested feed then enters the small intestine, where the nutrients can no longer be broken down, which can lead to functional disorders. As a result, many proteins and nutrients from the feed are lost and the animals become malnourished.

To help livestock owners with caudophagia problems identify the problem themselves, Dr Lappe always edits a film for the farmers showing the relevant areas. This allows the livestock owners to analyse the images themselves and better understand what needs to be changed in the barn to make the animals happier. At the end of his presentation, Dr Lappe emphasised once again that caudophagia always indicates a lack of well-being. However, the cause of this deficiency must be investigated on a case-by-case basis.

All in all, it can be said that there is already a lot of movement in the area of digitalisation in the pig sector. However, the sensors available to date are not yet fully developed and it will be several years before farm management systems find their way into pigsties. But even now, tail biting can be counteracted, for example, by carrying out targeted video analyses of problem pens.

Author: Regine Revermann, Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture