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Cameras: another option for pork producers’ technology tool kits

Cameras are all around us. Phones, iPads, computers, Ring doorbells, all have become a part of our everyday lives and it’s difficult to imagine life without them. One Iowa State University faculty member is looking at how cameras in hog barns can help producers recognize sickness and behavior changes.

Joshua Peschel, associate professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering, is conducting research on cyber-agricultural systems that could assist farmers. He said consistent, reliable, accurate, and cost-effective health and behavior understanding of pigs is one of the biggest challenges faced by the swine industry today.

“My research emerges from the critical need for new and innovative tools that expand precision livestock farming for production-scale swine operations,” he said. “My students and I create new technologies, data sets, and computational models for sensing and sensemaking. In other words, we come up with new data sets, using only video, to better manage pigs.”

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When Should We Assist a Farrowing Sow? - Dr. Alexander Grahofer

Video: When Should We Assist a Farrowing Sow? - Dr. Alexander Grahofer



In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, Dr. Alexander Grahofer, Senior Lecturer and Scientist at the Clinic for Swine, Vetsuisse Faculty Bern, examines how modern sow biology is challenging long-standing farrowing guidelines. He discusses piglet-to-piglet intervals, obstetrical intervention, hormonal balance, housing systems, colostrum access, and practical steps producers can take to support sow and piglet health. Listen now on all major platforms!

"Farrowing guidelines built around older sow populations may no longer reflect the biology and litter sizes seen in modern production."

Meet the guest: Dr. Alexander Grahofer / alexander-grahofer-05134888 is a Senior Lecturer and Scientist at the Clinic for Swine, Vetsuisse Faculty Bern, in Switzerland. His background includes porcine health management and animal reproduction, with specialization in pig reproduction and research focused on farrowing and sow health. Learn more from Dr. Alexander Grahofer on The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, available on all major platforms.