Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is the most efficient way to manage the health and well-being of cattle.
PLF is any smart technology that lets you monitor individual animals on your farm. Typically it includes a sensor of sorts that has the power to generate data on each individual animal. You can then use that data to extract insights that add value to your operation.
The concept of PLF is very similar to monitoring that is already widely used in agriculture. For example, John Deere uses sensors on its tractors to monitor performance and predict maintenance. This gives farmers the advance notice to fix their tractor before more serious issues arise and part of their operations come to a halt.
In the cattle industry, insights into cattle health and well-being are common ways PLF technology is used. Tracking behaviour of the cattle while they are on the farm, as well as their movements throughout the supply chain, are both helpful in predicting illness and preventing its spread throughout the industry. Companies like Cargill, Tyson Foods, and Zoetis are all taking leaps in PLF systems for health monitoring across the cattle industry.
Cargill, in partnership with Cainthus, is bringing facial recognition technology to dairy cattle. The system uses cameras to quickly learn a specific animal’s facial features and patterns on its hide. The cameras then monitor the herd and identify individual behaviour. Farmers are then presented with information regarding each animal’s health and well-being. Farmers now have an automated way to anticipate health concerns in their herd and address the issues before they worsen.
Tyson Foods has become a member of US CattleTrace, an organization dedicated to disease traceability in the US cattle industry. The program aims to aid with effective and quick disease response to foreign cattle diseases entering the country. US CattleTrace uses RFID ear tags to track animal ID, location, and date and time. The tags give complete traceability of each animal from birth to each location they travel to. In the event an animal contracts a foreign disease, it is easy for animal health officials to track where they have been and take steps to reduce the risk on the US cattle supply.
Zoetis has developed a special ear tag to monitor dairy cattle and provide early detection of illness. A cow’s rumination behaviour changes a few days before any visible signs of illness appear. With the help of artificial intelligence, these behaviours can be monitored automatically. Smartbow is an ear tag from Zoetis that measures the distinct ear movements while a cow ruminates. When the tag detects changes to ruminating behaviour, farmers are alerted so they can take action to treat the animal.
Precision Livestock Farming technologies continue to emerge and change the landscape of the cattle industry. HerdWhistle is among them as the only system capable of covering a full feedlot and collecting feeding behaviour data from beef cattle.
