COMM BOX – A new era in livestock farm management

 

In the modern era, livestock farm management is a complex task requiring extensive investment, all the more so when the issue is management of a complex of farms that extend over a large area. In addition, in recent years many countries around the world have increased the standards for raising livestock, obliging farmers to work accordingly as a condition for marketing to those countries. Add to that the decrease in profitability and the increase in inputs for agriculture.

 

Given this reality, growers seek to improve possibilities for remote control over what is done on the farms they manage (chicken coops, dairy barns and pigpens) without being forced to go from place to place, wasting valuable time. They seek the capacity to supervise workers, the possibility of documenting the information accumulated, and the opportunity to follow through on problems and mishaps in real time.

 

The Munters Corporation (Rotem), for many years the leader in the area of livestock farming control, understood this need several years ago and developed a computerized system called RotemNet, giving livestock farmers the possibility of receiving alerts from the chicken coop or the dairy barn in the event of malfunctions, and freeing them from the need to be present on the farm all the time.

In other words, the farmer enjoys full control over what happened, but the control was only localized.

In recent years, as the quality of life increased, so did farmers’ desire to spend more time with the family and to enjoy free time for hobbies.

 

Technological development enabled the MUNTERS Corporation to develop a new system for livestock farm management called CommBox. CommBox, combined with the RotemNetWeb system, offers farmers network access to the controllers of each farm from any installation, including cell phones, and provides the possibility of uploading the information to the net.

 

This system has totally changed the farmer’s way of life and his management capability. Each farmer can manage the farm through it (chicken coop, dairy barn, pigpen) remotely, enjoying full control over each variable – climate, water, ventilation, etc., through the RotemNetWeb application. In addition, CommBox can upload data from each farm to a central server that transfers them to management software. These data subsequently serve for research (IOT).

 

The new system enables two primary applications: one is management, supervision and remote control, namely, daily control over different aspects of livestock from anywhere using a simple, secure interface that enables inviting additional users to join it. The controller measures cold, heat, humidity conditions and more, responding and regulating these conditions, according to the data the farmer has entered beforehand.

 

Remote control is convenient for the farmer, saving time and manpower, enabling precise, timely reactions, and thus influencing the quality of life for the livestock; it enables documentation of the care for each variable (time of care, name of responsible worker, how the problem was attended to); it collects all the data and presents them graphically as well (up to 40 days), also enabling remote provision of service and support.

 

The second application is uploading the information to a central server, of MUNTERS or any other server, so that the farmer can collect the information and manage it very easily – whether for research purposes, decision making, problem identification, etc., with the help of additional management software.

There is no doubt that the new CommBox system advances the livestock raising farmer into a new era, where he is enabled to manage the farm with greater efficiency, to work less and as a direct result to increase his level of profitability.