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In addition to ensuring that the buildings are ‘fine-tuned’ at the commissioning stage, pig producers will be able to monitor how a building is actually managing to maintain the set environment in terms of temperature, ventilation rate, heater use, etc. This will make sure that the correct conditions are maintained to allow pigs to perform at optimum levels.
“We are confident that our buildings provide an optimum environment for the pigs so we are prepared to include free-of-charge this device to enable their performance to be independently checked,” commented Mike McLaughlin, ARM’s managing director.
This ‘meter on performance’ is believed to be unique among building manufacturers. It will be backed up by comprehensive after-sales service from Tim Miller, ARM’s livestock environment specialist who, with the information supplied, will be able to sort out any environmental anomalies quickly and easily with farm staff.
Along with the Dicam data logger, supplied by Farmex, the farmer also gets 12 months free subscription to Barn Report — Farmex’s on-line data retrieval and analytical service — which will highlight any environmental variations. This package is worth over £1,300.
The parameters set are normally logged every 15 minutes and collected automatically. The data is transferred to the Barn Report website — not publicly accessible — and the farmer can view it whenever he wants, using his PC and Barn Report software.
The logger is wired into the network that connects all the relevant piggery controllers, so if the farmer has other buildings with Dicam controllers, they can be added to the logging network as well. In addition, feed, water and energy logging can be incorporated at very little extra cost.
“Using monitoring, producers can ensure that the environmental control, feeding and watering systems supporting the housed pig are working as they should, consistently. Our experience with the system has led us to believe that improvements in performance worth as much as 30 per cent can be achieved,” commented Farmex managing director, Hugh Crabtree.
“With the system being supplied as standard, the farmer is protected from the initial capital investment in the monitoring equipment, and is straight into the payback period,” he added.
Oxfordshire pig farmer, Tom Allen (right), discusses with ARM’s Tim Miller, a print-out retrieved from the Farmex datalogger in his newly-commissioned 640-pig ARM Buildings finishing house. Temperature, water flow and electricity consumption are being monitored and already the Barn Report chart has shown that water consumption was too low. Chalk particles from the farm’s borehole were blocking the filters. When they were removed consumption increased substantially, despite the fact that the pigs are wet-fed.
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