I monitor each of my 400 pigs with this app

As farmers embrace technology to boost their ventures, a pig farmer in Meru has gone a notch higher and embraced a software app that helps her run the pig farm.

The farm’s owner, Ann Kinya, says thanks to the mobile app nothing at her pig farm in Ruiri, Buuri Sub County in Meru County which houses more than 400 pigs, is done manually.

Everything, from the farm records that include details on the pigs, to reminders for farm workers on the daily routines, is monitored digitally.

Working smart, she says, has done wonders on the farm.

“People wonder how l manage to run such a big farm without keeping manual records and having few workers. I use this software application to manage my entire farm without hitches and it has zero errors. With this app, l know the number of pigs, when are they due for vaccination, when will they give birth and when l should wean the piglets,” says Kinya.

What inspired idea?

“Necessity,” she says.

“I ventured into pig farming in November 2015 knowing nothing about pig rearing. l bought 12 gilts and one boar to start with. I ran the farm by trial and error and encountered numerous challenges especially on feeding. I recorded many needless deaths,” she recalls.

To avoid such blunders, in 2016 she decided to embrace technology. She approached an Information Technology specialist to design for her an app to monitor every critical aspect of the pig farm.

So how does it work?

The app basically captures every critical detail of every animal in the farm, its progress and problems. The app helps to monitor the performance of each pig.

On top of everything, the app also shows how many pigsin a farm are pregnant, how many are dry and those that have been weaned.

“The app helps us to manage the reproductions, enter dates for vaccinations and the app reminds us when we are supposed to deworm them,” she says.

Reproduction of the mature pigs is also monitored.

“For example when you know the date the sow was mated and the boar behind it, the software will calculate the expected farrowing dates. Two days before the D-day, you will get an alert which will ask you to confirm if a specific sow has given birth. You then confirm this detail by entering the actual date...”

The app will again, automatically pick the names of the sire and the dam (the mother and the father) and the names of the pigs that have farrowed and the number of the litter by each pig.

The app is spot on as it also helps you track deaths.

“Should you lose a pig in that litter, you record that day on the piglet count and automatically again the app reduces the number entered. Usually when a sow farrows, you enter in the app how many piglets were alive and the totals born, that information is saved in the system,” she explains.

Records number of deaths

Such details are helpful says Kinya, because when you want to look at the information on the mother on how it performs it will look at how many times it has farrowed, the piglets it has given birth to and how many were alive. This way you can gauge its productivity and if it has a problem.

Balancing act

Kinya, who teaches Literature at the Chuka University, has perfected her balancing act.

With it connected, she can peacefully lecture in class and monitor operations on the farm because she ges notifications and can advise farm workers accordingly.

“We are three admins who handle this software application - my husband, the farm manager and I. We all get daily notifications on progress of each pig.”

As Kinya can attest, the beauty about embracing technology and best practise is that you produce quality and this attracts solid markets.

Owing to her good practice, Kinya sells her pigs to Farmers Choice. By that time, they weigh between 90-100 kilos.

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