Iowa, is by far the nation’s leading pork producer, which makes anything that can reduce piglet deaths a big deal.
Matthew Rooda a 23-year-old Iowa college student has invented a life-saving wearable technology for pigs.
Rooda became frustrated one day while he was working on a sow farm in Waterloo, when he found that a sow had crushed eight of her newborn piglets.
He began brainstorming what he could do to fix this problem.
Left: Abraham Espinoza Co-Founder of SwineTech. Right: Matthew Rooda Founder of SwineTech.
Rooda started the company SwineTech, which was founded in August 2015. The company took the national title at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in Kansas City earlier this month.
SwineTech’s invention consists of two parts: listening devices and wearable technology placed on the sow for four to six days.
Once the software detects a piglet being crushed, the device sends a vibration to the sow.
Test results show that the sow stands up about three-quarters of the time. If she doesn’t move, the device sends an alert to the farmer.
The devices also help control temperatures, which are essential for newborn piglets.
SwineTech Technology
“We want to give farmers everything they need to raise pigs as effectively as possible. Our goal is to increase welfare in pigs, pork production, and help farmers make more money.”
The pork industry and investors are excited.
“We can solve pork producers biggest pain point and make them a lot of money doing it. We can end up saving them thousands of dollars in the course of year,” Rooda said.
Rooda has raised more than $1 million from investors. He has received backing from pork producers in Iowa and investors from across the country.
“It has been full time for the last 17 months. We have been traveling all over the U.S. raising money. There is still a lot of work to make this thing a success.”
He plans to further market the new invention at the 2018 World Pork Expo.
“We hope to go global in about a year and half, hopefully June 2018. We are working to have distributors all over the world, and help producers everywhere.”
Rooda explained that this new technology hopes to save a pig per sow every year.
Some groups have spoken up about the risk to the sow.
Rooda says, “I am well aware of the possible criticism from animal rights groups. We expect criticism, and we accept it.” However, Rooda argues that, “Most the people we’ve talked to consumer wise, agree that this increases the health of the mom, helps her live a longer life, and saves the piglets.”
You can learn more by visiting http://swinetech.co/
You can also vote for SwineTech at http://www.inc.com/profile/swinetech
