cattle management

admin
September 30, 2020
IoT

IoT-Enabled Smart Collar to Improve Cattle Management

The present COVID-19 situation has gripped the crowd-culture and demands for the minimalist culture, which means the least human-interaction, the more safety assurance. Corona-virus has limited the gathering at everyplace, either its an office or a shopping mall. In this situation, it has become a more challenging task for a rancher to keep a track on every cattle with least number of helpers.

Earlier, in the presence of labours, it was not easy to keep a track on a large herd because cattle management includes a lot more than you think. The day usually consists of feeding, cleaning, vaccination, health monitoring and anytime heat stress, anytime artificial insemination requirement and anytime calving. Farmers have to be all-time available to run a successful cattle farm.

Today, the Internet of Things has made many jobs easy in different sections. The need for time and the existing loopholes in cattle management has led to the innovation of IoT-enabled collars. The smart collar is the outcome of the collaboration of advanced technologies.

The IoT-based and cloud-connected collars monitor rumination, movement, activities, body temperature of the cattle. It collects the data and stores it on the cloud for analysis of pattern and behaviour.

How smart collar helps you in managing cattle remotely?

The GPS enabled cattle tracking collar provides the real-time location of your cattle. The collar sends the signal every 15 minutes at your livestock management dashboard. This process allows you to track the movement and location of your cattle at any time from anywhere. The IoT-enabled collar collects and stores the data on the cloud for future purposes. Farmers even install specific geofences and alerts to get the notification if cattle move out of a designated area.

If you own a large farm, then it would have become a more difficult task in this pandemic situation with less number of helper. Maintaining a record of each cattle becomes an arduous task. A bit of careless attitude might end up into a loss of 3,000-3,500 bucks per missed heat per animal. The sensor-enabled smart collar helps you to skip from all the undesired loss.

How IoT-enabled smart collar works?

  1. The smart wearable catches the movement and records the data. It predicts the estrus based on the change in behaviour, movement and activity pattern.
  2. The IoT-enable collar compares the daily activity of cattle and notifies if any change in pattern appears.
  3. The smart collar also compares the movement of each cow with the heard and alerts if any change shows.
  4. The IoT-enabled collar detects the patterns which only appears at the time of estrus and inform promptly.

Read More: Why is IoT Impossible Without an Open Ecosystem?

Smart collar curtails the undesired losses:

The reproduction cycle of a cow is very critical. For instance, missing the single heat stress of a cow can disturb a whole reproduction cycle and cause considerable loss. Suppose, if a farmer misses the heat stress many times or faces failure in artificial insemination, then, this situation might turn out to the worst result.

Therefore, this new data storing wearable tag eases the management work by notifying about the peak heat-stress period.

Usually, cattle management solutions include smart collars, receiver unit and antenna.

  1. It offers remote tracking of cattle and informs about its current location.
  2. It records and stores ambient temperature, rumination profile, cattle movements on the cloud.
  3. It alerts for oestrus period and animal health.
  4. It sends a timely alert for general health, lameness, oestrus, digestive health etc.

Reasons to have an IoT-enabled cattle management system:

The most straightforward reason is to minimize the loss of cattle, maintain good health and yield benefit. The other reasons are:

  • Cattle management solution can monitor ‘n’ number of cows.
  • It stores data and allows farmers to access it anytime from anywhere.
  • It reduces dependability on labour.
  • It provides a highly accurate result.
  • It alerts farmers if any cow is ill or lost.

Undeniable Advantages:

The inclusion of a cattle management solution can help farmers in all aspects. It improves farm management, increases the breeder’s efficiency and optimizes the input costs like labour, hormonal treatment, semen etc.

It lowers the dependency on human resources and assures for no human error. Farmers can access the data and can edit it as per the existing situation. The solution also helps the farmer in tracking and recovering stolen cows.

Conclusion:

The introduction of smart cattle management has solved the problem of poor breeding performance. The IoT-based cattle management solution is economical, robust and user-friendly. It has confirmed a positive impact on the growth of yield and health of cattle. It has reduced livestock theft and can count stock within a matter of minutes. The cattle management solution keeps a track on every individual cow and alerts the farmers if any change occurs. The adoption of revolutionary innovation in cattle management can change the outlook of livestock management. It contributes to saving money, efforts and time as well.ive

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admin
August 10, 2020
IoT

Why does Dairy Need to Adopt IoT Enabled Cattle Management Solutions?

The current pandemic situation, economic disturbance and job issues, people have realized that it’s time to get back to the origin. Agriculture would be the new preference, and people would certainly look for the solutions which would keep a track on their business just like a mother does on her child.

IoT has changed the outlook of businesses, either its manufacturing or by making smart city or automating cars. The time needed for the most reliable solution is met by IoT to a certain level. Nevertheless, IoT development companies are still investigating to get the most fitted, unambiguous and dependable version of Iot.

Taking the dairy industry as an example, let’s check how IoT can improve the working in the dairy sector.

Cattle management is one of the most challenging tasks in dairy farming, having experience in taking care of cattle might help you to a certain level, but if you are a layman, then you need to really work hard. Cattle management includes looking after the balanced diet of cattle, vaccination and heat stress along with insemination at peak time.

The addition of IoT in dairy technology has added advancement in the monitoring system of cattle which helps farmers in achieving better performance. It provides a way through which dairy farmers can optimize their livestock health using remote monitoring and allow them to make data-driven decisions. There are IoT service providing companies which are providing customized and optimal solutions to improve dairy farming.

Let us see how IoT can assist farmers through latest technologies:

A) Monitoring health of cattle:

The most essential and crucial part of cattle management is monitoring the health of the livestock and preventing them from illness through early diagnosis. IoT solutions which include wearables are capable of streaming data to the cloud. The smart collars capture data and notify farmers about several factors like a respiratory rate, heart rate, digestion level, blood pressure and other vitals. This information helps dairy producers to take prompt decisions for better health of cattle. In fact, tracking these factors also contributes to significant control over the livestock feeding issues.

Read More: Six Inevitable Steps to Bring Digital Transformation in Your Business

B) Tracking the reproductive cycle:

Missing a heat stress period of a cow can cause a considerable loss, and it also disturbs the reproductive cycle. It has been a tough task since ages, but now the addition of Iot for monitoring purposes of cattle has smoothened the task. The IoT enabled device monitors and informs the farmer about the heat stress of cows. A cow can stay in heat for around eight hours, the connected device can tell about the exact peak period, and farmers can use this period for artificial insemination. A.I, at the right time, ensures successful pregnancy of cattle along with good health. Not just this, It even notifies farmers when the cow goes into labour, thus making the calving process easy and safe. We can conclude that IoT has reduced the need for manual supervision for knowing heat stress and the calving process.

C) Location tracking:

Sometimes cattle get separated from the herd, and it becomes a tough and time-consuming task to find them. Well, the cattle management devices help you in this situation as well. Through smart wearable, you can track the movement of cattle. The IoT enabled device tracks the movement, locate them and help farmers in optimizing their grazing patterns.

In addition to this, sensors also inform the farmers about the changing behaviour appearing in cattle.

Read More: How will IoT Transform Transportation in the Coming Years?

D) Monitoring the behaviour:

It is tough to interpret the behaviour of cattle, specifically if you have a large herd. It is actually a tough task to know which cattle need attention in terms of diet or medicines or health. Iot enabled devices to watch the activity and movement patterns and share them with a farmer. Farmers easily know when to milk the cattle or when they need extra attention. The IoT enabled device even measures the milking amount and speed. It tracks the number of steps cattle walked and the amount of food it consumed. Thus, the precise supervision of cattle and the data collected allows a farmer to make actionable decisions to improve the health and yield.

Key Benefits of using IoT-enabled cattle management:

  • The ToT-enabled device monitors the health and vitals of cattle in real-time, allowing farmers to take prompt decisions and treat the animals on time to restrain the spread of disease.
  • It tracks the location of grazing animals and identifies the grazing pattern.
  • It collects and analyzes the historical data to diagnose cattle health or to track the spread of disease.
  • It gives real-time information for the calving process to avoid any loss and optimize breeding practices.

Conclusion:

The adoption of IoT enabled solutions for cattle management has ended the dependency on manual supervision. It also affirms for minimum error. The IoT-enabled solution provides real-time data with key insights. It assists farmers in taking the most favourable decision which can provide maximum efficiency while diluting the wastage.

Today, growth in IoT and its adoption in every sector has generated expectation as well as hope for better tomorrow. The adoption of IoT in livestock management has improved the yield and health of cattle. As per Statista, in 2017, the market value of monitoring and management amounted to about 2.52 billion U.S. dollars, and it is expected to grow 4.84 billion dollars by 2021.

If you have a dairy firm and managing a cattle has been a challenge for you then consider contacting us. Prompt Softech offers a wide range of Iot solutions for cattle management and agriculture. Contact our Iot experts and get the consultation to improve your dairy farming.

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