Transparency in Pig Production

Background and Objective

In the project, the research is scaled down to the detailed level of the "individual animal". With the help of SSIs, the security and quality as well as the transparency and flexibility in the bidirectional data exchange of a VC are sustainably increased. In case of complex documentation duties and verification of chain information for the purpose of consumer and animal protection as well as sustainability and economic efficiency, DLTs combined with SSIs hold enormous automation potential in the VC pig.
For DLT and SSI testing and the later derivation of transparency indices for consumers, animal, farm and process data are collected along the entire pig VC in sub-projects that address current transparencyrelevant areas such as data management, application of sensors, animal health, animal welfare, climate efficiency, sustainability and consumer behaviour. In order to reach the data level "individual animal" on pig farms, six trial farms (3x piglet rearing and 3x fattening, once each husbandry level 2, 3 and 4) are digitally transformed using RFID-supported, compact sensor technology, based on the results of the project “Experimentierfeld DigiSchwein”.
As a whole, "TiPP" carries the opportunities of digitalisation into the broad agricultural practice and its rural areas via a targeted technology and knowledge transfer. This contributes to the promotion of digitally supported, sustainable agriculture in the medium to long term. For rural areas, digitally supported VCs in the agricultural and food sector offer advantages in terms of consumer policy, climate efficiency and regional economy.

Approach

The project TiPP is to be carried out by a consortium of six interdisciplinary partners over a period of 36 months. The partners represent public institutions and universities in the fields of agriculture (administration and consulting), animal production, agricultural technology, veterinary medicine, agricultural marketing and data science/informatics. As the research infrastructure of the project, the Goldschmaus Group is associated as a cooperation partner with its regionally established value chain (VC) pig.
Due to its complexity and scope, the project is divided structurally and organisationally into nine work packages (WP), each led by a project partner with primary responsibility:

WP 1: Coordination/Organisation - Future Region, trial pig farms and expert groups
WP 2: Digitisation and data management
WP 3: Evaluation of sensor application at farm level and along the value chain
WP 4: Animal health
WP 5: Animal welfare
WP 6: Livestock farming - Digital climate and sustainability management
WP 7: Knowledge transfer regional/supraregional
WP 8: Evaluation of consumer behaviour

All APs are closely linked in terms of content and work organisation. Besides achieving intermediate
milestones within the WPs, all project partners work closely together to achieve the five main milestones in
the project. The latter roughly divide the project into four phases:

1) Preparatory phase for data collection

2) Data collection phase on trial pig farms and other actors in the VC

3) Data utilisation phase for the derivation of transparency indices and SSI testing

4) Transfer phase of project results to the professional community and agricultural practice