17 August 2022

3 minute read

By: Rick Purnell

BarnTools, a provider of wireless barn alarms for poultry and swine producers, debuted during IPPE 2022 last January. The company acquired some poultry customers in 2021, but this was its first appearance at a major trade show. Jim Ryken, co-founder, shared the news with The Poultry Site’s Sarah Mikesell during the event.

“It’s kind of a grand opening, if you will, into the poultry market,” said Ryken. “It’s been a wonderful time, we’ve met a lot of great people and are excited to bring our remote monitoring system, BarnTalk, to the poultry market. It’s a wireless alarm system that farmers can install and get notifications and alerts about what’s going on in their facility when they’re not there.”

Launched last year, Ryken said BarnTalk measures temperature, water and humidity. Earlier this year, BarnTools launched a remote, dry contact sensor, which measures power and other parameters of a second barn.

“You can have one of our main gateways in a barn or house 1,” said Ryken. “Then, in house 2, you can hang this new sensor an get information about power and controller errors from your house to the facility.

“We’re also excited about a lux meter we’re testing for the poultry industry and some gas sensors,” Ryken added. “We continue to add to our portfolio of sensors and we’re also integrating with some other companies that provide sensors to the poultry market, as well. So, there’s a lot coming in the next year from BarnTools.”

Ryken said the wireless system is easy to install. BarnTools sends a customer a unit and it takes about 30 minutes to set up a system.

“You plug it in, you turn it on, you download the mobile app onto your phone and then go hang the sensors where you want in the house,” said Ryken. “Then you fine tune your parameters about the alarms and you’re ready to go. It’s very fun to work with customers and help them through this process.”

He added that BarnTalk gives customers the ability to see what’s going in a facility when they’re not there. Customers can set and manage thresholds when they want to be notified – if it’s too hot or too cold, if there’s a water leak or other parameters such as water quality. Plus, customers can build their own call tree, so employees or family members can be notified if an alarm goes off at any facility.

“These factors can affect mortality, they can affect growth and just the wellness of the birds,” said Ryken. “So, having this information so that you can quickly respond to any issue can be game changing for folks.”

He said the app works anywhere customers are, even on the beach. If a customer receives an alarm, they can quickly see if something is changing quickly or if there has been a gradual adjustment.

“You don’t have to drive 20 minutes to see what’s going on,” said Ryken. “You’ve got that visibility in the palm of your hand.”