A pilot project underway in Saskatchewan is assessing technology designed to track the movement of swine transport vehicles. 
Guelph-based Farm Health Guardian and the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board are collaborating on a pilot project to assess the performance of various truck movement recording technologies. 
FHG CEO Rob Hannam said the goal is to see how the company’s biosecurity software can assist in viewing truck movements on and off the farm. In addition, it is testing new technology related to monitoring the movement of trucks. 
“What better place than to try in Saskatchewan where some farms are close to an urban centre, well connected through a GPS or cell signal.” 
However, on many farms, especially swine farms, the public requires them to be more remote in areas with poor cell reception or WIFI. Hence, it’s important to test new technologies they can use in those specific areas in rural settings. So far the pilot study has about 20 swine farms and related businesses in Saskatchewan involved. 
Hannam approached the Sask Pork Development Board and asked to try this new technology presenting the criteria for different types of operations to see how other producers would use it. 
The different testing sites include the Prairie Swine Centre near Saskatoon which conducts applied research, so that’s an important one. 
“We have independent producers, a feed mill, one of the larger producers with multiple farms so they have their own internal IT systems and a genetics company with sites more remote and spread out. So we wanted a cross-section and that’s what we have among those 20 farms.” 
The company doing the research is Farm Health Guardian, a software business based in Ontario but the most active users are in Manitoba. The company’s system has two parts. One is Farm Health Monitor, animal health record keeping, a centralized health record where a swine producer can share data with the veterinarian and Farm Health Protect, a biosecurity management system.  
“It’s able to automatically and confidentially record the movement of trucks or people on and off-farm properties.” 
That’s important to veterinarians when investigating any disease to determine how it arrived at the farm and where it may have gone.  
“We’re making that information available to the health profession, like a vet in real-time. So that’s quick on Farm Health Guardian and how we’re helping to reduce disease spread in swine today.” 
As part of this pilot project, FHG will follow its privacy promise. The participants in the project would see all the data for their truck or farm. If they own both, they get to see both. But that’s their information confidential from the other participants in the project.  
Hannam said Sask Pork would get a summary report without the specifics but sharing the recommendations on how the technology worked.  
“I think that’ll be valuable for pork producers just because they’ll get a sense of the three or four different technologies and how they performed in real-world conditions.” 
The benefits come back to biosecurity with two aspects preventative and responsive or reactive. On the preventive side, the customers will use this information to ensure they know what’s happening with their operation.  
“Let’s say they have several farm locations sending their trucks to those different locations. Some of them would want to ensure there’s a truck wash between when it goes from Farm A to Farm B; using this system they can determine the washing of those trucks.”  
On the responsive side, if there is a suspect disease outbreak, it gives the veterinarian all the information they need in real-time to make choices and manage the disease and hopefully reduce any disease spread risk amongst their farm operations. •
— By Harry Siemens