UHF RFID puts ID card on pigs and traces their life from birth to slaughter

With the development of society in recent years, the scale of the hog industry has increased significantly. Especially since 2018, the African swine fever epidemic has further accelerated this process. In 2019, the market share of the top 20 Chinese hog farming giants has reached 11.4%. At the same time, feed companies began to deploy pig farming, and pig farming group companies began to deploy the entire industrial chain, which further enhanced industrial unity and corporate repurchase capabilities. Pig farming became more standardized and the industrial chain became more digital, all benefiting from RFID Application of technology in pig farming industry.

Before the live pigs enter the slaughterhouse, enter the closely related information such as serial number, source, animal type, and birth time into the tags, and then perform subcutaneous injections of biological glass tubes or install ear tags to establish a definite association between the electronic tags and the pigs. After the File is established successfully, the pigs are allowed to enter the stalls.

During the daily feeding and management process, the individual identification is carried out through the handheld RFID Reader, and the feeding data is recorded. Such as daily management information (fence, eating time, physical characteristics, body length and weight values, etc.); immunization information (whether immunized, vaccine type, vaccination method, vaccination dose, immunizer, etc.); birth history information (birth time, quantity, etc.) ); medical history information (disease name, time, symptoms, whether it is cured, etc.); the breeder updates the live pig file database in real time through the background management system.

Identify individuals through RFID readers, sort them into columns, record activity rules, etc., and update them to the live pig archives database in real time through the network. Other management departments or personnel can query information such as live pig files, tracking reports on the disposal of sick and dead pigs through the background management system.

The eating conditions of live pigs are closely related to their weight and health information. Scientific feeding can keep pigs in good health. During the lactation period of sows, the feeding of sows is particularly important. Automatic feeding through RFID technology, strictly control the feeding of sows, sows can get enough nutrition from daily food, and provide sufficient nutrition for the good growth of piglets.

Scientific and reasonable feeding is carried out according to the different conditions of each pig, the weight of the pigs is well controlled, and the meat-to-feed ratio is achieved, feed is saved and feed costs are reduced.

In view of the country's vigorous promotion of pig raising information management and traceability management of pork and other foods. As the best recording and collection method for pig breeding information, pig ear marks are the front-end individual in the entire management system and will be adopted on a large scale. Through the identification function of electronic ear tags, the country can track and monitor the whole process of animals from birth to slaughter to sale to final consumers.

The birth of Pig Ear Tag identification technology (EPC/RFID)

Since 2009, the Danish Meat and Agriculture Association, together with GS1 Denmark and Hästrupgärd, has been implementing an Electronic Product Code/Radio Frequency Identification (EPC/RFID) solution for pig ear tags. The individual identification of pigs is achieved through the EPC/RFID tag in the ear tag, which consists of a global company prefix code, a serial code for the animal species and the animal's official code (ie SGTIN).

They use UHF RFID electronic tags to track the movement of pigs. UHF RFID tags can sense the movement of pigs at a long distance (because young pigs often run around), and UHF ear tags are smaller than low-frequency tag ear tags (also suitable for piglets less than 3 weeks old), so that The feeding process (such as feed quantity, body weight change and medication) of each pig can be detected. By referring to the recorded data, it is possible to define the grade of the pig and to estimate its price (up to 27,000 Euros and less than 100 Euros).

In the past, when gathering and counting live pigs to be transported, it took three to four employees two hours to complete, and the error rate of relevant data records was as high as 10%, which affected the management efficiency of customs, border and export product receivers . Since the use of EPC/RFID tags, each employee only needs 45 minutes to complete the work, which improves work efficiency and the quality of data information records.