November 22, 2018
The CSIRO and an agtech startup, Ceres Tag, have created a smart ear tag to help farmers keep track of where their livestock are and what they’re doing.
The new technology collects similar data to that delivered by smart watches.
Using the device, farmers can track where their herds graze, if an animal has escaped or been stolen, and even unusual movements which could indicate an animal is giving birth or sick.
The smart ear tag was successfully tested recently on 100 cattle at the CSIRO’s Lansdown Research Station near Townsville.
The aim is to save farmers time and money compared with the costs of manually tracking their herds using vehicles or aircraft.
“Ceres Tag gives greater transparency over grazing management, allowing farmers to locate and monitor their animals to reduce risk and operating costs, improve efficiency and assist with traceability,” Ceres Tag CEO David Smith said.
“The tag is GPS-enabled, allowing farmers to track the location of individual animals remotely.”
Using on-board accelerometers, the tag can send out alerts for unusual activity patterns which could be triggered by events such as theft and other disturbances of the herd.
“Aussie farmers need every bit of help they can get right now, so we are pleased it has taken less than a year for this technology to move from the research phase into development for a real-world trial on cattle,” CSIRO Group Leader Dr Ed Charmley said.
“Our focus for the future is to create a smaller and lighter tag, as well as added functionality such as a temperature sensor, which could alert farmers to illnesses at an earlier stage.”
Ceres Tag is on show at the digital forum of MLA’s Red Meat 2018 event in Canberra this week, and the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture in Brisbane next week.
The development of the smart ear tag was co-funded by Meat and Livestock Australia.
