From early disease detection to future-oriented decision-making, technology is reshaping the modern pig farm. Industry experts explore how AI and automation are solving day-to-day inefficiencies while addressing the broader challenges of labor, animal welfare, and long-term strategic planning. Discover where Hyatt Frobose, commercial director – North America for Jyga Technologies – GESTAL, Wesley Lyons, DVM, director of technical services for Pharmacosmos, Todd Thurman, founder and CEO of Swine Insights International and Mark Hulsebus, general manager – U.S. Pork for Alltech, see the most tangible ROI and what they believe the industry must do differently to secure its future.
When it comes to AI and technology, where do you see the most tangible ROI on the farm?
Frobose: While artificial intelligence (AI) is certainly getting a lot of oxygen in the news, I think most workers at the slat level would agree that it’s having little impact on day-to-day operations at present. However, technology has been deployed at increasing rates in farms, but for many the key is finding the technologies that don’t just provide data, but actually help improve efficiencies in the barn. These types of tools lead workers to find and apply more effort on the ‘outliers’ in the herd, while spending less time on the healthy animals that require less attention. Technologies that reduce feed waste, improve preweaning survival, and speed up routine decision making in the farm are good examples with tangible ROI’s that have been successfully integrated.
Hulsebus: In the tech space, I personally believe that in-barn camera technology has the most potential to generate outsized ROI for the industry. While there are quite a number of hurdles still to overcome with this technology, it’s really hard to argue with near real-time data, whether that’s accurate marketing weights, early detection of health challenges or tighter feed management systems.
Lyons: I think we’ve learned valuable lessons by adapting new technology to pig farms. In general, the less “bells and whistles,” the better. With that said, there are several technologies that have improved animal well-being and the daily flow for the employees. If I had to choose one technology with an easy-to-see ROI, it would be feed bin sensors. Out-of-feed events are extremely costly in any phase of production, and having on-demand communication about it saves time and money.
Thurman: There are so many, but I think perhaps the one with the best ROI is utilizing AI in the onboarding and ongoing training of employees. We are utilizing grounded AI applications like NotebookLM from Google to develop customized training programs based on each farm/company’s SOPs and policies. This is such an important, but also time-consuming, task. AI has made it faster, easier and better for everyone involved and our clients are seeing tangible benefits in employees becoming more confident and skilled and transitioning more quickly from trainee to contributor to leader. If your SOPs and policies need to be refreshed, AI can help with that, too.
What should the pork industry do differently to ensure success for the next generation?
Frobose: We currently tolerate levels of disease, morbidity and mortality that, in times when our genetics were not as hyperprolific, would have been seen as completely unacceptable by experienced stockmen and women. I fear that this prolonged challenge is desensitizing us to the reality of the situation, and I fear that if this issue was front and center to our consumers, it would create significant backlash amongst them.
Hulsebus: My personal belief is that we must change our focus as an industry to one of total throughput and away from maximization of growth performance. This is a question of simple economics. There are very few industries, if any, that can be successful long term while accepting a 15% to 20% loss of the units they start with versus the units they send out the door. Our industry is no different. We need to move to striving for livability and throughput.
Lyons: We have to make work schedules and pay attractive for employees across all aspects of the industry. Speaking purely from a veterinary perspective, it is getting more difficult to attract new, young swine veterinarians into the industry. This is largely driven by work-life balance. Small animal roles pay as much as if not more than swine veterinary roles and have a 4-day work week without nights or weekends. I’m not saying we can get to that level as we must have continuity day after day on the farms, but we can certainly improve work flexibility so that careers in our industry are attractive.
Thurman: I think the industry needs to develop a capability for longer-term business planning. Our industry is pretty good at short-term (12-18 months) and medium-term (2-3) business planning. As the pace of change accelerates, however, the ability to extend the horizon to 5 or even 10 years is moving from huge advantage to critical necessity. Many organizations are hesitant to spend time thinking about the long-term future because they think you have to accurately predict the future in order to prepare for it. We’ve successfully utilized the concepts of strategic foresight with our clients to show that a structured system that utilizes scenario planning can lead to productive long-term strategic planning without having to accurately predict the future. The reality is that we routinely make 10- to 20-year decisions on a 2- to 3-year business plan in this industry. When demand was growing rapidly, that wasn’t a huge problem. But as we shift to a very different supply/demand environment, more future-oriented thinking is critically important.
