Two years ago, researchers at the University of Copenhagen managed to crack the code to interpret how pigs feel, via their sounds. They used AI technology to interpret over 7,000 audio recordings of over 400 pigs.
Surprising results
Now that research has been used in the documentary “Documents from outside: If pigs could talk”. Audio recordings of 15,000 grunts have been analyzed to find out how pigs feel on different types of farms in Denmark: Conventional farms, organic farms and farms where the pigs are free-range.
– When it comes to types of farms, it is definitely on the free-ranging ones that they feel best, says associate professor Elodie Briefer at the University of Copenhagen.
Many stressed conversations among the pigs
On organic farms in Denmark, the pigs have three times as much space indoors as on conventional ones.
– We expected the organic farm to be somewhere between free range and conventional, says Elodie Briefer.
But the results showed otherwise. On conventional farms, a quarter of the pigs’ calls are “highly stressed”, while on organic farms, almost half of the pig calls are stressed. This means, according to the researchers, that the pigs have high stress levels on both types of farms, but highest on the organic ones. The researchers cannot answer why the results look the way they do.
“Amazing”
– It was quite astonishing, says Elodie Briefer.
EU member states have a regulation that governs what applies to organic production, and it applies to both Swedish and Danish organic agriculture. But there are also national regulations that differ between the two countries.
See “Documents from outside: If pigs could talk” at SVT Play.