In a modern sow barn, identifying a sick or lame animal often feels like searching for a needle in a haystack. BioCV, a German-born tech company now planting roots in the U.S., is changing that.
By combining smart analytics and real-time wearable sensors to detect illnesses and farrowing signs up to two days before they become visible to the human eye, the BioCV intelligent sow monitoring system delivers insights that can be used to support sow herd management and improve animal health, reproductive efficiency and overall farm productivity, explains Jens Kjaer, CEO at BioCV Inc.
“It catches subtle shifts in behavior, like the start of a fever or the first signs of heat, providing insights so that you can make more confident breeding decisions and better calls on sow care before, during and after farrowing, helping keep sows productive and pig flow on schedule,” Kjaer says.
Boosting the Bottom Line
To achieve that user-friendly goal, the system focuses on the three areas that affect the “pigs weaned per sow per year” metric most: catching heat, managing farrowing and minimizing farrowing complications.
In short, Kjaer says they want to help producers by prioritizing and identifying problems and opportunities in the barn sooner. For example, locomotion issues account for nearly 18% of sow mortality and euthanasia. With replacement gilts valued at up to $500 each, losing a gilt or early-parity sow to lameness is a major blow. The system detects subtle changes in movement and flags potential lameness early, giving caretakers time to evaluate and intervene before culling becomes the only option.
In addition, the BioCV system accurately identified estrus shifts 90% of the time in commercial barn trials, helping staff to time inseminations more accurately, improve first-service conception, use semen doses more efficiently and reduce non-productive days.
DNA Swine Genetics Puts BioCV to the Test
This promise of early detection and data capture is what caught the eye of one of the industry’s leading genetics providers.
“We’ve looked around at different types of sensor technology and tools on the market,” says Randy Borg, director of genetic research and development at DNA Swine Genetics. “Two things led us to do business with BioCV. 1) They have a strong commitment and passion to the development and research to make their technology work for the applied side. 2) They wanted to use our data to help train models for their dashboard. They don’t own that data, and so we’re not giving up any data.”
In June 2025, DNA Swine Genetics set up the BioCV intelligent sow monitoring system on one of their sow farms. Plans are in place to expand to a second farm soon, he says.
How Does It Work?
From the outside, the tag doesn’t look that ‘smart.’ However, the tags are equipped with accelerometers and temperature sensors to monitor every sow individually. Machine learning correlates movement patterns with specific behaviors such as estrus, farrowing, lameness and illnesses. The tags feature a 2.5 to 3-year battery life and are reprogrammable and reusable, meaning they can be moved from a culled sow to a new animal to maximize the investment.
The device connects to a bionode that is connected to a router and to the cloud where data is being adjusted or processed, explains Moritz Gansel, founder of BioCV GmbH. It utilizes an “Open API,” allowing producers to integrate the data into their existing management software rather than forcing them to use a standalone application.
“It was honestly plug-and-play,” Borg says. “We had to set up our sow farm from a network standpoint, but once we had that set up, it was really smooth. We placed their bionodes in the barn, connected them to the tags that we put into the pigs’ ears and then the data came our way. We started tagging gilts when they come onto the farm, and followed their progression through breeding, from estrus detection to gestation to farrowing.”
Being able to detect and monitor estrus behaviors has been incredibly valuable.
“You can also take a deeper dive into that data and look at some of these individual sows and how the model is showing their progression of estrus,” Borg explains. “Sometimes it’s normal. Sometimes you may have a cystic sow. Sometimes you may miss a breeding opportunity, and she comes back into heat. But you would have never seen that because she is no longer in that group where you’re heat checking.”
But Does It Work?
The return on investment depends heavily on the operation’s level of production, and what they do with the information. How quickly can people react?
“On the technical front, many U.S. barns have very solid concrete walls,” Kjaer adds. “That’s not always good for Bluetooth, so some of the performance depends on how open the barn is. We believe, in most cases, we can reach the payback period in less than a year.”
Borg appreciates the company’s desire to adapt the product to work for their barn. They are continuously sharing feedback and finding even better ways to help each other achieve success.
It’s been almost a year since DNA Genetics put in their first tags, and Borg says just like other tools out there, it takes a little time to learn. In the beginning, the data was a bit overwhelming, but they are quickly figuring out how to use it in a way that helps them make better decisions on the farm.
Kjaer says the most popular question he receives is, “Does it really work?”
He points to the research studies to show the value. As the industry moves toward data-driven management, the individual sow remains foundational to herd success.
“We know labor is tight and units are getting larger,” Kjaer says. “The BioCV system helps your best people focus their attention exactly where it’s needed, exactly when it’s needed. It’s about being proactive instead of reactive — giving your team the tools to work faster and smarter, not harder.”
