- Pork giant Muyuan taps AI to optimise animal health, feed and resource use
- AI technology is essential with the sheer scale of its operations
- President expects AI to make an even bigger impact in years to come
The scale of the operation makes the application of technology essential for managing production, said company president Gao Tong.
“Muyuan is the largest pork producer. Every year, we serve more than 80 million pigs – not just in China but also in other countries. So managing this number of pigs and the size of our farms is a really big challenge for our company,” said Gao during a panel on AI in agriculture at the World Agri Food Innovation (WAFI) Conference in Pinggu, Beijing held from 17 to 19 September.
Animal welfare to supply chain intelligence
According to Gao, one of the most significant applications of AI in the company has been in animal health and welfare.
The company operates more than 3.3 million smart devices across its farming operations.
“In our in our pig farms, we have more than 3.3 million intelligent devices. They can collect more than two billion pieces of data every day. This includes body temperature, feeding and even data about the behaviours,” said Gao.
The volume of data enables AI models to detect illness before visible symptoms emerge, allowing farm managers to intervene earlier and potentially reduce the impact of disease outbreaks.
“So now we can detect illness earlier, often before invisible symptoms appear,” said Gao.
Not only has this reduced the mortality rate among its pigs but also reduced the company’s antibiotic use.
Another area where the company sees the “tangible” benefits of AI is in resource optimisation.
Even if individual improvements may appear small, the impact becomes substantial when applied across millions of animals.
“AI tools help us to optimise feed formulation, water usage, and energy consumption across the farms. Even 1% improvement in our feed conversion ratio really get a big benefit for our system,” said Gao.
Lastly, Gao highlighted AI’s growing role in connecting production with markets downstream.
The company has developed digital platforms that use AI to improve coordination and information flow across the supply chian.
“We have built a predictable model models that connects the farm output with the market in mind, so now we can just use AI tool to connect the pig farm to our consumers.”
A future shift
While AI is already delivering value, Gao believes AI technology can make even more impact in its business.
He said Muyuan was working to connect every technical system within the business, including breeding operations, feeding systems and environmental controls.
Gao expects AI to evolve from a series of individual applications into a unified platform capable of managing the entire production ecosystem.
He expects that this could happen is three to five years at the rate AI progresses. Pork giant Muyuan taps AI to optimise animal health, feed and resource use
“I believe AI will determine the best solution and how to adjust our systems, perhaps the nutrition formula or our breeding plans, based on the actual situation.”