Farmscape for December 15, 2023
| Full Interview 10:15 | Listen  |
An evaluation of GPS tracking devices conducted in rural Saskatchewan has shown not all are created equal.
In an effort to improve transport biosecurity Guelph based Farm Health Guardian in cooperation with the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board and the Canadian Agri-food Automation and Intelligence Network conducted a pilot project under which the performance of various GPS tracking devices was assessed under real world conditions in rural Saskatchewan. Farm Health Guardian CEO Rob Hannam says the devices were installed in the trucks that regularly move pigs to and from the farms that volunteered to be part of the study and three of the technologies emerged as winners.
Quote-Rob Hannam-Farm Health Guardian:
There’s one device we call Passport L. It’s a GPS powered brake light that replaces the light in the back of any livestock trailer or feed truck. It’s a four-inch light and it just works fantastic. That was one of the winners and we would call that a powered GPS device because the power comes from the lighting system of the truck so it’s always got power. As soon as you apply the brakes on your trailer it’s recharging the battery inside that light an so we get really good signals no matter where the truck is so that works great.
The second technology we looked at was battery powered. Not all vehicles have a four-inch brake light.
Let’s say manure haulers for example. Those trucks or wagons might have something different and so we have a battery powered device as well. That particular device is actually manufactured by Blackberry and of course they’re well known for data security and for reliability and so that one was also one of the winners. The third device is one for passenger vehicles, so pickup trucks, cars, vans and it plugs in right underneath the steering wheel, where you’d have the diagnostics that your mechanic can plug into to check and see if the car is working. That same port can be used for GPS transmission.
Our Passport A device plugs right under the steering wheel and again it’s powered so it works quite well.
Hannam notes the full report is accessible as a fee download through his company’s web site at farmhealthhguardian.com.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca. Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers
