Development of a management system with RFID and QR code for matching and breeding in Taiwan pig farm

The outbreak of swine diseases in Taiwan during the past years has caused a large number of meat from sick pigs to reach the market. This greatly affected the willingness of consumers to purchase pork. In order to enhance food safety and sustain the income of pig farmers, the Council of Agriculture recommended that the pig's production history be presented to the public so that product information could be made transparent. At present, most of Taiwan's pig farmers still use handwritten cards for administrative work. New record cards are filled out for each batch of swine and collected as a booklet for management. For some pig farm, this management approach requires very high labor costs with regard to vaccination and production management and lacks management efficiency as well. Therefore, this study established a management system for (1) pig matching, (2) vaccination, (3) production date, and (4) production capacity that combines radiofrequency identification (RFID) and Quick Response (QR) code technology with electronic database management system for stock people to keep track of the farm situation at all times. Results of actual test in pig farms showed that aside from effectively improving the efficiency of breeding and matching, this system can also significantly improve and upgrade administration of vaccines and efficiency of breeding.