An AI-powered farrowing pen developed by WEDA Dammann & Westerkamp with VetVise has won the Gold DLG Innovation Award and the Animal Welfare Award at EuroTier 2026, two of the show's most prestigious prizes.

The retrofittable system uses cameras and artificial intelligence to analyse the behaviour of sows and piglets continuously, especially in free-farrowing pens, and turns what it sees into automatic changes to housing and feeding. Conventional systems run on fixed schedules or environmental triggers and need manual checks.

If piglets use the supplementary feeder more often, the AI reads it as a possible sign that the sow is short of milk and a yellow light above the trough alerts staff. If piglets huddle tightly outside the nest, a sign of cold stress, it raises nest heating automatically. WEDA says the result is fewer crushing losses, earlier warning of milk problems, automatic birth records and feed adjustments, lower energy use from demand-based heating, and no need for night-time checks thanks to remote monitoring.

Photo: Dingar / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Source: The Scottish Farmer