Technology And Pregnant Pigs

One of the interesting things about aerospace spinoff is the way it keeps cropping up in uncommon applications unimaginably remote from the original technology. For example, the pig pregnancy detector. The pig pregnancy detector? City folk may be surprised to learn that there is such a thing-and wonder why. The why is because it is a sow's job to produce piglets and farmers can't afford to keep those who don't; it costs about a half-dollar a day in feed, labor and facilities, and even in small herds that's intolerable. So the barren sow must go. Until recently, the best method of determining pig pregnancy was "eyeballing," daily visual examination over a period of time. The problem with eyeballing is that pregnancy is not evident until well advanced; when there is no pregnancy, the farmer learns too late that he has been feeding a sow that won't give him a litter. Advancing technology provided an answer: the quick, easy-to-use, accurate automatic detector for early evaluation of pregnancy status. Among the most popular of these devices are Scanopreg and Scanoprobe, to whose development NASA technology contributed. Scanopreg is an ultrasonic system which detects pregnancy about 30 days after breeding, long before eyeballing can provide an answer. The companion Scanoprobe is a dual-function unit which not only determines pregnancy but also gives farmers an analysis of a hog's meat-fat ratio, an important factor in breeding. Only a short time on the market, Scanopreg and Scanoprobe have already found wide acceptance among meat producers because they rapidly repay their cost.