“An unlimited number of sites can be accessed from one central location, which greatly increases the accuracy and timeliness of pit level reporting while eliminating an unpopular and time-consuming task,” Stuthman says.

“The network collector unit can also be programmed to dial out and send a fax report of current conditions on a specified schedule. This means if you wanted every farm to report the effluent level to a central location or head office every Monday morning, you could do that,” he adds.

The Integra Pit Monitor is supported by AP's I-Box system from E2E, which can provide access to current and historical data on feed, water, animal weight, animal environment and effluent level from any PC equipped with Internet Explorer from anywhere in the world.

Matt Thome asked if one monitor installed in a double-wide finishing building would be adequate to monitor the entire building's pit status. According to Stuthman, one monitor per pit is sufficient, regardless of the number of rooms in the building, as long as the pits are connected.

The panel felt this product could be particularly beneficial to a larger producer who may need to plan manure pit emptying routes. The product would be a good fit for producers who were already using the I-Box system.

List price is $995. The unit can typically be installed for under $1,000.

Visit www.automatedproduction.com, or call 217-226-5767 for more information.

BinTrac VMI

Herdstar LLC

BinTrac VMI serves as a Web-based bin-monitoring system. Weight-based BinTrac Pro sensors measure on-farm feed inventory and disappearance rates as a stand-alone system that may also be connected to the Web using Bintrac's VMI communication hardware. A farm's management offices and/or feedmills can then access near real-time information through a password-protected Web site.

An “order desk” interface clearly shows bin status and features smart alarms to allow remote feed ordering and order tracking, and indicates the status of pending orders. “The BinTrac VMI system is an end-to-end solution because it provides all of the hardware and software needed,” explains Bob Baarsch, CEO of Herdstar LLC. “The Bintrac Pro loadcells and brackets are unique because the system allows installers to easily retrofit bins in an existing system, whether they are empty or full.”

Data can be transmitted through locally hardwired equipment or sent up to 4 miles with wireless radio. One BinTrac Pro console displays the feed weight and level in up to four bins.

“BinTrac VMI is an accurate and affordable system that allows remote monitoring of feed bins for multiple locations,” Baarsch says.

“Pork producers benefit because there are fewer livestock performance losses due to reduced out-of-feed events, and real-time consumption data helps improve management. Feedmills are able to reduce expedited orders. This in turn saves trucking costs and improves feedmill scheduling and throughput efficiencies by eliminating surge days.”

BinTrac VMI can verify feed delivery information. Managers can find out when feed was delivered, how much was delivered, and verify which bin was filled.

Baarsch says having accurate feed usage information helps managers and consulting veterinarians with early disease detection. Usage information can also help predict within four days of when a feed bin will be empty. An intuitive Google Earth map relates a producer's entire system in red, yellow and green status conditions as to when a site/barn/bin is going to run empty.

The panel felt the BinTrac VMI's ability to tell when to order feed would be beneficial to producers.

There are two installation options. Producers can purchase the BinTrac Pro system for a stand-alone local solution to monitor bin weights and feed levels. A VMI communications option can be purchased at any time to connect the local information to Bintrac.com. The local-bin-only solutions prices start at $770 per bin. The communication system varies, depending on the site and configuration. Communication hardware starts at less than $1,000 for a simple dial-up, once-a-day solution to an “always on” cellular Internet situation. Monthly fees apply to both options.

Visit www.herdstar.com or call 612-756-3515 or 877-Bintrac (877-246-8722) for more information.

mentor

VitaPlus Corporation

Mentor is a Web-based nutrition modeling and feed budgeting program that improves the accuracy of feed budgeting and closely targets the nutrient requirements of growing-finishing pigs using scientific modeling. The program then creates farm-specific feed budgets for each feeding group based on average starting weight, number in a group, performance and carcass data.

“Producers are able to more closely target specific nutrient requirements during each stage of the growth period and eliminate over- or under-feeding,” says Dean Koehler, Vita Plus swine technical services manager. “The mentor program also dynamically adjusts feed budgets based on pig movements and removals, non-standard feed delivery amounts and the implementation of Paylean. The growth curves can be customized based on farm-specific data in order to determine dietary lysine requirements.”

Information may be shared with feedmills, employees and consultants, according to user permissions set up by each farm. All data is maintained in a secure web environment.

Joel DeRouchey asked how many diets could be programmed into mentor. Koehler says that multiple diet menus, each consisting of 18 diets from 1.25 to 0.40% digestible lysine, are uploaded into mentor, although the feed budgets for most producers' pig groups use around 12 of the 18 diets from about 50 lb. to market weight.

The panel felt there may be some logistical challenges associated with managing so many diets, such as placing numerous small orders of feed ingredients. Uniformity of pig groups would also be crucial.

Koehler says the mentor program has an initial farm setup fee of 4 cents/pig/year and then an ongoing charge of no more than 10 cents/pig. This should provide at least an 8:1 payback, based on typical feed savings of 80 cents/pig when using mentor, as compared to a typical five-phase grow-finish feeding program. Visit www.vitaplus.com or call 800-362-8334 for additional information.