Development of Automated Pig Weighing

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.