PigTracker Project Finds UHF Tags Effective for Swine

The handheld units were used in individual cases in which a pig was provided with medical treatment—in which case, farm employees or veterinarians could read that animal's tag and input information about the procedure completed and the swine's health, which was then stored in the software. Farmers could access pig-related information in the software, which featured a graphical display showing which animals were located within each unit or pen, based on data collected by the handheld and fixed readers.

At the slaughterhouse, an RFID interrogator was mounted above the receiving doorway, in order to capture tag ID numbers as the pigs entered the facility, in an effort to link a specific swine to a particular carcass, and the meat coming from that carcass. However, Baadsgaard notes, this process still requires more development, since the slaughterhouse's busy environment poses challenges for the reading process.

More than 10,000 pigs were tracked by means of EPC Gen 2 passive RFID ear tags attached to each animal's ear at the age of three to four weeks.

According to Baadsgaard, the project found that the UHF tags' longer read ranges—up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) with fixed readers and 80 centimeters (31.6 inches) using a handheld device—make it easier to track animals that move quickly in multiple directions. "These read ranges apply for small ear tags [30 millimeters in diameter] for small piglets," Baadsgaard says. "Larger tags will have larger antennas and, therefore, higher read rates and read ranges, as well." Unlike LF tags, however, the UHF tags can be rendered ineffective if the tags become extremely dirty. "If we had normally clean pigs," he says, "we had close to 100 percent read rate."

Baadsgaard is still reviewing the full results, and within the next few months, he plans to summarize them in a report posted on the PigTracker Web site. In the meantime, the TraceCompany RFID ear tags are for sale to pig farmers, though they have not yet been produced in high volume. Two companies, Agrosoft and DLBR, have taken over the task of further developing the PigTracker software, which farmers can purchase to track their animals, and eventually share data via the Internet with other farmers or buyers.

Baadsgaard says the system will supply farmers with an answer to the basic question, "Where is my pig?" and indicate where a specific animal comes from, its age and if it has been treated medically. He suspects that many farmers will adopt the technology, including several who participated in the pilot. "Given the experiences from the pilot," he states, "it's conceivable that RFID applications may come in place within other areas of farming as an asset-management tool."