A better grip and digital control with Intelligent Barn
Automated control of the climate and the direct environment of the stable remains important in livestock farming. For this purpose, smart technologies that automatically provide the user with information via sensors are indispensable. That’s why Connecting Agri & Food is meeting entrepreneurs’ needs with a newly developed software tool called Intelligent Barn.
Intelligent Barn is an innovative tool for both pig farmers and dairy farmers, developed by Connecting Agri & Food in collaboration with software company Whysor. With the technology of Intelligent Barn and supplied software you can continuously collect data about the climate in and around your business, the health of the animals and the smell emissions. This is always possible because the coverage of the sensors runs via the LoRa (long-range) network, which is present throughout the Netherlands.
Measuring climate, smell and water consumption
Measurements take place with sensors located in the stable. Various sensors measure the inside and outside temperature, CO2 and ammonia levels, water consumption, air pressure and humidity. Via the dashboard on your phone, PC or tablet you have direct insight in the form of graphs, alerts and summaries. Harm van der Zanden, the ICT specialist at Intelligent Barn, explains: “Not only is taking measurements possible with Intelligent Barn, but you can also take immediate action in the event of incidents in and around the stable. The unique thing about our concept is that the entrepreneur himself specifies the desired values and exercises control using them. It is also possible to set an alert, for example, if one of the specified limit values has been reached. This alert arrives with the user as a message on the phone or via the tablet.”
Also dairy farming
The current users of Intelligent Barn are mainly pig farmers, but there are plans to expand to other sectors. A trial for dairy farming, with a duration of up to 2 years, is currently underway to gain experience with the possibilities of Intelligent Barn for ventilation and ammonia emissions and to see what provides the best results with calves. Sensors that measure temperature, ammonia and humidity are already operational in dairy farming.
You can also contact Harm van der Zanden from Intelligent Barn.
Interreg
The development of Intelligent Barn is made possible in part by the Interreg programme, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, the German Ministry for Science and Innovation (Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Innovation, Digitalisierung und Energie) and the provinces of Noord-Brabant, Gelderland and Limburg.