Tianpeng Group in Jiangshan, a county-level city in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, installed an intelligent pigsty in a nine-story building, which has raised 18,000 pigs, local media reported on Feb 23.

The 7,340-square-meter building can produce 150,000 live pigs for sale per year and uses 90 percent less land than a traditional bungalow.

Automatic feeders are used in the intelligent pigsty. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn] 

The building introduced automated equipment and an intelligent data management system to control the breeding process, including temperature and humidity control, feeding and taking the temperatures of pigs.

In addition, the building is designed with thermal insulation and equipped with a thermal energy collection device to recover heat. This has reduced the average energy cost of a piglet in the winter conservation period from 15 yuan ($2.37) to 3 yuan.

Double filtration deodorization equipment has also been set up in the building to reduce harmful substances in waste gas, reduce the spread of disease and raise the pig survival rate to 98 percent.

Next, the company will introduce an inspection robot to automate the management of breeding, said Wang Litong, general manager of Tianpeng Group.