Business Opportunity
This is an agricultural company that provides a way for ranchers to track individual cattle in their herd using a wearable ear tags and a gateway specific to their ranch.
Technical Challenge
They set out to create a way for ranchers to monitor the location of individual heads of cattle remotely. The solution needed to include solar-powered sensors that can be connected to a gateway. Previously, ranch hands, drones, and helicopters were used to find lost cattle which is both time-consuming and expensive.
Solution
We created a solution that uses ear tags to monitor cattle. Due to the remote location and cost prohibitive cellular and satellite solutions, we used LoRaWAN to deploy large networks that would cover the entire area. In addition to geolocation, we also monitor the animal’s health using heartbeat and temperature monitoring. When an animal moves out of a preset geozone or is experiencing a health problem, a notification is sent in real-time to the rancher and sometimes the veterinarian. All of the cattle can be seen in one application, giving the rancher an at-a-glance look at the health and well-being of his or her herd without the expense of hiring more labor as the herd grows. The ear tags are solar-powered and are put in the same location as the current ear tags to eliminate the need for an additional tagging process.
Impact
The first part of the solution solved the initial problem of ranchers being able to see the physical location of their cattle. Since then, we have updated the solution to use various sensors to leverage cattle behavior and individual animal health (sick, breeding, calving). Part of the ongoing development is utilizing technology such as machine learning to ultimately give the rancher a real-time holistic view of the health and welfare of the herd.