Smart Farming
“The company expects to recoup these investments with lower feed costs, no energy costs and better results from higher quality piglet”
New piglet house of Marko van Asten.
Technological developments not only change our everyday lives, it also applies to businesses. This is also the case in the livestock farming industry. Insights in the massive amounts of data that advanced technology gives us, creates the possibility to make well-founded business decisions. In the case of livestock farming, this means that animals get the exact treatment they need. This is what Smart Farming is all about, and Inno+ truly embraces it.
Smart Farming is an optimum climate all year round
Our climate solutions for intensive livestock farms are changing the status quo. Nowadays, Farmers (and humanity in general) still has the bad habit of doing things the traditional way: produce, make a mess, and clean up afterwards!
This isn’t smart farming at all.
Our solutions will radically change the way we design pig, poultry and cattle stables. We have various climate concepts for an optimal stable climate.
Thanks to Inno+, Kuijpers Kip can heat its poultry houses without using fossil fuels.
What are the advantages?
Inno+ uses smart farming to realise some considerable advantages for livestock farmers. These benefits all come from an array of different systems that each have their own added value. Here are some examples:
- Healthier livestock
- Reducing ammonia emission by 85%
- Reducing odor by 45%
- Reducing fine dust emission by 80%
- Considerably less energy costs (up to 50% of your energy bill)
‘I wouldn’t wait a single day. Every day that you don’t use heat recovery in the barns, you’re wasting money.’ (Erwin van de Wolfshaar)
All of our systems are designed to create an optimal stable climate. The air scrubbers and Triple EEE Heat Recovery systems will be discussed below.
Smart farming and air scrubbers
Air scrubbers are a type of air cleaning equipment used to remove dust, odours, ammonia, chemicals and micro-organisms from the air. This device works by driving air through a mechanical filtration system, removing all unwanted private material. It can also be added to air heating or conditioning and generated energy can be used to condition the farm’s climate.
Air scrubbers allow livestock farmers to improve the air quality in their houses, which can improve production while improving animal health by reducing the use of antibiotics. Besides improving air quality, air scrubbers also offer other benefits. For instance, they can be used to reduce other gases, such as ammonia and CO2. This helps reduce ambient air pollution and improve air quality inside and outside the house.
Air scrubbers
Without a doubt the most popular of our systems, the air scrubbers are perfect for reducing the impact on the environment. They realise this by reducing the amount of emissions like ammonia, odor and particulate matter.
The air scrubbers function simple, but effective:
- The ventilation air comes in contact with water.
- The washing water is continuously pumped around, together with the ventilation air.
- This washing water absorbs dust, odor and ammonia particles.
- The outgoing air is cleaned thoroughly.
The air scrubber greatly reduces the emission of ammonia, odor and fine dust. However, the air scrubber has more advantages. Because it has a large filter surface, the air resistance and energy consumption of the fans is considerably less. Furthermore, the pump technology combined with unique pre filters guarantees lower energy costs.
“The investment more than pays for itself. Taken together, the various benefits make a big difference.”
Considerable improvements
In order to reduce harmful emissions as effective as possible, it’s important that we continuously improve our air scrubbers. Now, with over 15 years of experience and numerous successful projects, we developed two improved air scrubbers for pig farmers. We developed a chemical and biological air scrubber, both of which reduce harmful emissions quite considerably. For example, our new chemical system can reduce ammonia by 90%.
Energy recovery using air scrubbers
Smart farming always strives to optimise the quality of intensive livestock production, but also reduce the energy it takes to produce. One energy-saving technology that makes it possible to recover energy from livestock houses are air scrubbers.
Air scrubbers are designed to remove excess heat and moisture from houses, making the temperature more stable and requiring less energy to control humidity. They also help reduce energy consumption by removing heat and moisture from the air being exhausted.
In other words, air scrubbers help in recovering the energy costly for livestock farming activities. The cleaned air supplied by the system reduces energy costs while lowering energy consumption, helping to reduce the environmental footprint.
In addition, the air scrubbers can also be used for energy storage. The heat generated by the system can be used to preheat incoming air into the houses, allowing animals to grow up healthier.
We hope this technology will be a valuable addition in the smart farming strategy when it comes to reducing energy consumption. Air scrubbers are an effective way to easily recover energy from production processes in the house.
Triple EEE Heat Recovery
Triple EEE (Energy, Efficiency and Economy) is a plug and play system for heat recovery. This system recovers energy from process water within the air scrubber. During winter, the energy is then used to pre-heat the incoming air.
This heat recovery system plays a very important role in realising an optimal house climate, which in turn leads to healthier livestock because of:
- Healthier lungs, because better ventilation removes more harmful gases.
- Less chance of illnesses because fewer germs are present at a lower humidity .
- Better intestinal health because an optimal or warmer environment stimulates the circulation in the intestines. In cold stables, blood is mainly pumped to important organs such as the heart, lungs and brain.
- Less or no ear biting due to the prevention of drafts or climate fluctuations in the stable.
The air scrubber and Triple EEE Heat Recovery are not the only smart farm solutions we offer. Click the button below for other products. Read more about all our farming solutions here.
Successful smart farming projects
We have already helped numerous livestock farmers with our smart solutions. All have been finished successfully, although varying greatly from eachother. A couple of projects will be discussed here.
The Kuijpers family
Kuijpers is a broiler farm located in The Netherlands. “The production of affordable and sustainable chicken for everyone is their goal”, according to Marcel Kuijpers. There were plans for launching a new mixed farm. Inno+ was invited to design an innovative approach for energy recovery from the air cleaning process. The solution was using the heat energy of older birds to keep younger chicks warm.
Click to read more details on our innovative farming energy project.
The best piglet house
Marko van Asten built a new piglet house consisting of the very best elements. Everything was well thought out, in terms of logistics, layout and environmental integration. Inno+ was asked to install it’s high-quality air system. The climate in the barn is noticeably very pleasant, which can be seen in the piglets that are healthy with no coughing in the whole barn and the pens, which are clean. Climate specialist Frans Lemans even called the new piglet house ‘the best piglet house in the world’.
Download the case study for more information on this project. Fill in your email address and click the download button.
More information?
We hope we gave you a good idea of the benefits of smart farming in livestock houses. We understand that you might want further information on our products. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We are happy to answer all your questions and provide you with the information you need. Click the contact button below.
Big Dutchman is a market leader in the sector on five continents, in over 100 countries. Big Dutchman stands for long-lasting quality, good service, and unique know-how. The technological innovations are a driving force for advancing the state-of-the-art in modern animal husbandry.
What is smart farming?
Smart Farming in intensive livestock farming is an activity that uses state-of-the-art technology to increase productivity. By using technologies such as sensor and data tracking, automation and artificial intelligence, farmers can better monitor and manage livestock. With these solutions, livestock farmers can gain insight into the livestock characteristics such as age, health or production goals of their herds.
The goal of a smarter way of farming is to improve herd management by using reliable, automation and real-time data. Real-time data allows farmers to take into account the factors that affect herd quality such as climate, feed conversion and immune status of livestock.
In addition, this way of farming in intensive livestock production can also help detect and manage pests. Farmers can also store benchmark and feed price data and use it to improve their livestock housing.
In short, with smart farming technology, intensive livestock farmers can better manage their livestock and improve the health and productivity of their cattle.
Benefits of smarter farming in livestock production
- Further simplifying livestock farm management. Smart farm approaches can be used to collect and analyse real-time data, enabling livestock farmers to make more informed and detailed decisions about their livestock operations.
- Improving livestock performance. With the application of smart technology, livestock farmers can get an accurate picture of their herd’s health status and performance. This allows them to identify problems and improve their livestock.
- Reducing costs and improving quality. By collecting data and providing insights, smart farms help livestock farmers reduce the cost of animal nutrition and medical care and improve the quality of their herds.
- Increasing resilience. Smart technologies can increase the sustainability of livestock farms through emergency rescue systems to increase resilience to external influences such as disease.
Learn more about smart farming and air scrubbing? Get in touch with us!
Data collection using smart farming techniques
Smart farming techniques have changed the way livestock farms collect and analyse data. With this kind of technology, farms can use advanced data applications to improve their business processes.
Numerous innovative technologies are used in farms to provide farms with reliable, up-to-date informative data. For example, with applications, farmers have access to real-time weather forecasts. This allows them to adjust their operations or optimise their farm climate to reduce the risk of poor production results.
Smart farming systems also allow farmers to access detailed information about their barns faster. Moreover, livestock farmers can use various sensors to collect the latest data on barn climate, humidity, temperature and more. This enables farmers to make better decisions regarding the care and production of their animals.
Smart farming techniques also have increasing importance for controlling livestock farms. Using artificial intelligence, livestock farmers can start digitising livestock so that they can see exactly where their livestock are, how much food they are getting, what health problems they have and what needs to be done for effective livestock management.
In short, smart farming technologies have helped farms improve the quality and productivity of their operations. The data collected by these innovative technologies allows farmers to work more safely and precisely and manage their farms more effectively.
Data collection in livestock air scrubbers
Air scrubbers play an important role in creating a clean and healthy environment for livestock on livestock farms. Reducing air pollution is crucial for human and animal health, especially in areas where livestock are kept in confinement.
Data collection at livestock air scrubbers is an important part of good on-farm air quality management and can help livestock farmers achieve higher performance. By collecting data such as air temperature, saturation, air pressure, particulate matter, electronic components and air filtration techniques, livestock farmers can better understand how the air scrubbers on their farms respond.
However, data collection alone is insufficient. Instead, livestock farmers need to process, analyse and interpret data to extract value from their data. Using advanced analytics, livestock farmers can adjust their air scrubbers to deliver better performance.
In addition, advanced data applications provide livestock farmers with real-time insight into how their air scrubbers are performing. This makes it easier for livestock farmers to maintain or replace their devices in time for optimal performance.
Data collection on air scrubbers in livestock farming provides livestock farmers with detailed insights and clarity into their operating processes, which helps reduce air pollution and achieve higher performance in livestock farming.
