Abstract

Presently, digital technology has become an important contributor to the developing concept of smart agricultural tools, especially with sensor monitoring to health status. In the livestock industry, the body temperature of farm animals must be monitored to prevent the occurrence or progression of any disease amongst the herds. In our device called the Inspect, we have employed infrared sensors to detect the fever status of sows. Systemic architecture and data flow systems have also been designed for workers to use on large-scale pig farms. The body temperature of 100 gestating sows was determined with the use of a standard thermometer (inserted into the rectum), while our device known as the Inspect was used on each part of the body of the sows. The valva or anus was found to be that location because of the high correlation that was observed between the two measurements (R = 0.78). Moreover, regular and systematic inspections were employed for a full year in 2019 on commercial pig farms that were home to at least 300 sows. The pig production values of 2018 and 2019 were compared before and after employing the Inspect. The results indicated that the production indexes of the after period (2019) were better than those of the before period (2018), especially in terms of the health status of the animals with regard to mg/PCU. Accordingly, the after period recorded mg/PCU values that were less than the before period. Consequently, it was determined that this system could detect abnormal signs in livestock before they could become a bigger problem or result in an outbreak of a disease. However, this system should be further developed and integrated with the use of artificial intelligence or AI for beneficial applications of ‘smart agriculture’ in the future.

Keywords: Infrared Temperature Sensor; Inspect; Sow; Body Temperature

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