Modeling of Ambient Environment and Thermal Status Relationship of Pig's Body in a Pig Barn

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of temperature model (T model), relative humidity model (H model), temperature-humidity model (TH model) and temperature-humidity index model (THI model) in predicting pig's body surface temperature (PBT). Infrared Sensor (IR) was used to measure PBT at different locations: left side (LS), right side (RS), forehead (FH) and back side (BS). Ambient environmental parameters inside the room such as temperature (ART), relative humidity (RRH) and CO2 concentration were measured using livestock environment management system (LEMS). THI model was selected as the best model in making more accurate prediction in both training (R-2 =0.72, RMSE=0.80, RSE=0.26 and MAPE=2.08) and validation (R-2 =0.74, RMSE=1.10, RSE=0.40 and MAPE=2.80) stages. For more precise modeling, apart from temperature and humidity data other environmental factors inside pig's barn (CO2 concentration, wind speed, air pressure etc.) as well as growth factors (body weight, feed intake etc.) may be included in models.