CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KWWL) – University of Iowa student Matthew Rooda has come up with an invention that he helps will save the lives of countless piglets.
While helping out on the farm in his hometown of Oskaloosa, Rooda noticed that too often a mother pig will accidentally crush and kill one of her babies.
He came up with a solution. It’s called the SmartGuard.
“Imagine a baby monitor that sits on the side of the pen. It listens into all the little baby’s cries. When it hears that piglet that’s in distress, we’ll send a bunch of pulsating vibrations,” Rooda says.
Those pulsating vibrations cause the mother pig to want to stand up and save the piglet’s life.
The invention also regulates the environmental conditions within the pen.
