Nghe An farmers raise pigs and chickens via… phone

With a farm of nearly 50,000 chickens and ducks per batch, Mr. Dinh Nho Phu Quy (Thanh Lam commune, Thanh Chuong), the farm owner, only needs 2 workers to work on the farm instead of 6-7 people as before. Accordingly, Mr. Quy invested in installing sensor cabinets, automatic feeders and waterers in the barns.

Every day, when the food in the trough is almost empty, the sensor will detect and “release” food from the tank into the food troughs. The same goes for drinking water for chickens and ducks. Each row of cages has drinking nipples. When the chickens and ducks need it, they just need to put their mouths on the nipples and water will be provided.

Mr. Phu Quy said: “We installed 6 sets of sensor cabinets in 6 rows of barns at a cost of nearly 400 million VND. The steps such as feeding and drinking are all automated to reduce labor, limit people coming in and out of the barn, which will limit diseases and risks. From there, reduce production costs and increase economic efficiency in livestock farming.”

With two civet farms, one in Xuan Lam commune (Hung Nguyen) and one in Nghi Kieu commune (Nghi Loc) with a scale of 500 animals, Mr. Vu Van Cu has gradually automated the raising of these wild animals. Accordingly, he has renovated the cage system in a closed direction. Under each cage, biological bedding is spread to limit the work of cleaning the cage and reduce environmental pollution.

In particular, in each cage, there is an automatic water tap, water is always pumped to the tank, available in the pipes and nipples of the mink. If in the past, to know the temperature of the cage, he had to install a meter, and had to go in and out many times a day to check, now, the temperature sensor system in the cage is connected to wifi network, connected to a smartphone, if he needs to check the temperature, he just needs to go into the system to know the specifics, then adjust accordingly.

As one of the shrimp farming households following the high-tech model, Mr. Nguyen Van Thang (Dien Trung commune, Dien Chau) installed a system to monitor and control the pond climate, automatically control the temperature, cooling pump; monitor temperature, humidity and measure gases NH3, CO2, O2, fine dust, wind speed, pressure in the farm; automatically run the backup aeration fan when there is a motor overload; automatically warn of power outages, phase problems, motor overload, temperature exceeding high/low thresholds in the pond... All are controlled and operated via an app on a smartphone or directly controlled.

In addition, the farm is also installed with a control system according to the breeding stages to help control the system remotely, operate an automatic feeding system to help reduce labor and care costs for nearly 20 shrimp ponds. Along with that is pond management software including functions to monitor shrimp growth, feed status and feeding activities, veterinary activities and monitoring, controlling the barn climate...

Mr. Thang said: “When applying digital technology to 3-stage closed shrimp ponds, we can take the initiative in many things, overcoming environmental problems. Second, with the automatic operating mechanism, mainly by the system of monitoring and controlling the climate of the barn, automatic feeding system, barn management software... has helped to minimize human contact with livestock, thereby preventing the risk of spreading pathogens.

Third, the automatic fan control system for the cooling system and the temperature according to the age of the livestock helps to adjust the temperature to a perfect level. Thanks to that, intensive crop rotation means that there will always be shrimp in the pond to sell and not fall into the situation of good harvest but low price like before. In particular, thanks to the application of high technology, there is less care work, ensuring disease safety, so the economic efficiency is higher.

In addition to large-scale farms applying high technology to livestock farming, in small-scale households, people are also gradually mechanizing the livestock farming process. For example, using chopping machines, mixing feed for livestock and poultry; using biological bedding; ventilation fans, cooling racks, etc.

It can be said that, with the reality of livestock development in the province, investing in mechanization is considered an important solution to shift from small-scale to industrial-scale farm production, contributing significantly to improving productivity and product quality. In addition, it limits risks caused by epidemics; proactively manages and monitors the process of feed use, reproduction, animal health, etc.

Currently, the number of high-tech livestock farms applying GAHP (VietGahp, GlobalGap) and organic standards in Nghe An accounts for about 25%, thereby creating a herd of 65,000 dairy cows, 271,423 pigs, 5,569,000 poultry, and 77,685 buffaloes and cows.