Every day, 60,000 pigs in the Netherlands have an ear tag clipped on, a process that is outdated, stressful, and unnecessary. At Westfort, we are convinced that we can completely eliminate the need for traditional ear tags within three years.
Problem Statement
The identification process for meat pigs has remained largely unchanged for decades. The system is outdated and no longer meets current standards, for several reasons:
Stress on the Animals: Attaching an ear tag is an additional physical intervention for the animal. Besides being labor-intensive, it can also cause stress to the pigs.
Manual Data Registration: The current system relies heavily on manual data entry, which is prone to errors.
Outdated Identification Method: The outdated ear tags cannot record any information about the individual pig. As a result, no additional guarantees can be provided about the individual animal, such as treatments it has received.
The Solution
Instead of clipping on a new slaughter tag, we will use a piglet ear tag enhanced with an RFID chip. A piglet ear tag is legally required and is applied to every piglet. We enhance this piglet ear tag with RFID technology, allowing us to track the pig individually from birth to slaughter, including during transport.
During transport, the process works as follows: The pigs are scanned on the farm before departure, after which the data is electronically transmitted to the slaughterhouse and automatically read in. This makes the traditional tag obsolete, eliminates manual data entry, and enables additional guarantees to be provided with the pig. Our system has already received approval within a pilot program in collaboration with the government and the NVWA.
