Streamlining Pig Production with Remote Visibility

Like many producers across the country, most of Suidae Health and Production’s swine growers are located on farms in remote areas that are difficult to reach. For production supervisor Bill Wurr, having remote access to environmental readings inside his nursery barn was a top priority — whether he was six hours away, or driving to a routine site visit.

In search of a solution, Bill teamed up with one of Suidae’s veterinarians to explore their options.

“We needed the ability to monitor our pigs remotely and 24/7.”

The dialer alarm system they were using to monitor their nursery, which had to be hardwired to their controller, failed to provide any visibility if something went wrong at their site. With the dialer, they had no ability to view any environmental metrics, including barn temperature or water usage.

After attending World Pork Expo, Bill found the remote visibility they were looking for. He’s now using BarnTalk inside four 600-head nurseries in North Dakota to receive alarms, track temperatures, and monitor water consumption. Bill also says the switch has improved their process for reporting metrics.

“With BarnTalk, we’re monitoring temperatures in the nursery to see where we are at different points, and that we’re increasing water on a daily basis. Before, there was only one general water meter for all four nursery rooms, which was impossible to monitor.”

When pigs are moved from the nursery to their growout barns, Bill says having the flexibility to adjust alarm thresholds has been invaluable. “If a room goes empty and someone forgets to adjust the alarm points, I like the remote availability to adjust high and low temps. It’s great to be notified and adjust the thresholds when I know that room is empty.”

Bill is also working to send data from BarnTalk to EveryPig, a platform that streamlines how veterinarians collect and report pig health metrics. Through the integration, BarnTalk can automatically send environmental data, including temperature, water, and humidity, to EveryPig.

“If we had a client that wanted to put BarnTalk in all of their barns, I would definitely say to do it.”