A high-level precision pig farming delegation from Indiana visited a Suffolk firm as part of a fact-finding tour.

The influential group, representing housing manufacturers, engineers, livestock specialists and pig farmers, visited agricultural control, monitoring and alarm firm Dicam Technology in Halesworth and Reading-based Farmex, which specialises in temperature, ventilation and heating control systems for pig farms.

The aim of their visit was to find out more about the companies’ control and monitoring technology and how it can help them achieve their aims.

In 2016, members of the group set up Precision Livestock Systems to “pursue innovation in animal agriculture”. This includes implementing “transformative technologies to increase visibility, employee satisfaction, pig performance, food safety and environmental sustainability”.

Farmex systems are already widely used in Nebraska and there is interest in Indiana which has more than four million pigs, and is the fifth largest pig-producing state in the USA, the firm said.

“US farmers and farming companies have been quicker than the British to seize the financial and management benefits that this technology offers,” said Farmex managing director Hugh Crabtree, who owns a minority share in Dicam.