Barns of Tomorrow Webinar Series to Explore the Future of Livestock Housing and Precision Technologies
AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering team will hold the second season of the “Barn of Tomorrow” webinar series in November and December.
Designed for livestock producers, industry professionals, researchers and anyone interested in the future of livestock housing, the four-week series will explore cutting-edge advancements in livestock housing, precision technologies, strategies to utilize computer vision to address biosecurity concerns and virtual fencing.
“As livestock housing evolves, the focus is on new strategies and practices that can help with both livestock and housing performance,” said Kapil Arora, field agricultural engineer with ISU Extension and Outreach. “This upcoming four-part webinar series will take a deeper dive into strategies to improve electrical efficiency and environmental sustainability, biosecurity and animal welfare in livestock housing.”
Each session will address critical topics, including winterizing swine barns, identifying opportunities to reduce energy costs and the economics of virtual fencing. Attendees will gain practical insights on how emerging technologies can improve production efficiency, animal comfort and sustainability.
The webinar series will occur for four weeks at 12 p.m. (CST), with the following schedule:
Nov. 24 – Preparing Your Swine Barn for Winter While There Is Still Time, Brett Ramirez, associate professor and extension agricultural engineer at Iowa State
Dec. 1 – Powering the Barn of Tomorrow: Know Your Energy, Identify Opportunities to Control Costs, Tim Shepherd, associate teaching professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering
Dec. 8 – Virtual Fencing Options and Economics for Cow Calf Operations in Iowa, Tim Christensen and Eric Weuve, farm business management specialists with ISU Extension and Outreach
Dec. 15 – Application of Computer Vision Techniques to Address Biosecurity Concerns in Animal and Crop Facilities, Gretchen Mosher, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State and Hanwook Chung, assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State.
Each webinar is available at no cost to participants, but online registration is required.
For more information about the series, contact Kapil Arora at pbtiger@iastate.edu or 515-291-0174. For registration inquiries, please contact Melissa McEnany at mmcenany@iastate.edu or 515-294-9075.
