Cattle Tracking Systems
Looking to keep better track of your cows location, health, and if they are in heat?
Outfitting a sensor and tracking device to a cow’s collar, ear, leg, tail, or via an ingestible microchip gives farmers the ability to track a cattle’s activity levels, health, and other key behaviors like reproduction activity to increase output and overall herd wellness.
11/01/2019
Key Benefits
- Easy animal Identification
- Heat detection for improved conception rates including tracking silent heats and to target best time for insemination
- Lameness detection and general health monitoring to separate and treat sick cows
- Calving detection so the new calf can be entered into the system and so live births can be monitored
- GPS location tracking to monitor herd
- Early mastitis detection to lower risk of milk loss
- Integrate with farm database tracking of any medications or treatments and output
- Rumination tracking to see how long they have been eating to monitor health and manage overall herd feed rations
- identify animals under heat/cold stress
Key Drivers
In general, a farmer detects on average 60% of heats of cows in heat (Van Weyenberg, 2013)
During hot summer weather, milk production may decrease by as much as 50 percent. Some data indicates that only 10 to 20 percent of inseminations in “heat stressed” cows result in pregnancies. - Research
Results
“At first it was hard for me to admit that electronic heat detection system is needed. Now I can't live without it... My pregnancy rate improved dramatically from 15% to 24%... “
John Hochstetler from Crystal Valley dairy (Indiana, USA), using AfiAct II
"System was installed and up and running within a weekend was identifying heifers in heat.
It spotted heifers that we would not have seen using tail paints or manual methods"
Companies
A partial list of the companies offering solutions in the space.
Part of larger systems
These companies offer cattle health tracking solutions as part of larger smart dairy and beef tracking devices and systems.
Investment / Acquisition Activity
Investments
- Silent Herdsman raises £3 million (3/2014)
Acquisitions
- Afimilk acquires Silent Herdsman (2/2016)
For a more complete list see our report
For a complete list of companies view our Cow Tracking Industry Report
Products
From simple activity monitoring to more advanced ingestible devices use these devices to start tracking your herd.
Connecterra IDA
A collar worn tracking device that monitors eating, activity, chew count and then analyses date for patterns and feedback loops with farmers.
Quantified AG tag
An ear tag that monitors a cows movements and temperature every hour and sends it back to a dashboard via a gateway.
Apps
Details
- Pricing and demo on request
Moocall Calving and Heat System
Moocall offers both a device attached to a tail to track for calving events as well as a collar and RFID system for bulls to track mounting behavior, etc.
Apps
Details
- €329.00 for calving sensor
- € 1,500.00 for HEAT system with collar and 50 RFID eartags for heifers
Overview video of a cattle tracking system
For a more complete list of cattle tracking products and pricing download our Cattle Tracking buyers guide
Virtual Fencing
Using wearables and low voltage shocks or uncomfortable sounds with warning stimuli like vibrations let the animals know when they’re approaching an area they shouldn’t be heading towards. This enables farmers to save on material and labor costs as well as opening up rotational grazing opportunities not seen before.
Background Resources
Background articles and industry news for dairy and beef farming monitoring systems
General Overview
Articles
- Subcutaneous Fitbits? These cows are modeling the tracking technology of the future - MIT Review 5/2018
- Implementing an Animal Monitoring System - ProfitableMilk 5/2018
- Tracking Devices for Livestock Increase Farm Profits - SierraWireless 10/2017
- AgTech — Not Just for Large Farms? - Observer 5/2017
- ‘Fitbit for cows’ just got into Y Combinator - TechinAsia 3/2017
- Recent advances in wearable sensors for animal health management - Sensing and Bio-sensing research 2/2017
- Smart Farms: Big Data Meets Big Ag - PC Mag 11/2016
- Using rumination sensors to monitor heat stress in dairy cows - Dairy Herd 11/2016
- Luddites, Beware: These 5 Livestock Wearables Are the Future - Modern Farmer 1/2016
- With These Animal Fitbits, Farmers Can Recognize The Patterns In Dairy Cow Mooovements - FastCompany 11/2015
- MooMonitor is a real cash cow - SilionRepublic 4/2013
Websites
Research
- Lameness Detection in Dairy Cows: Part 2. Use of Sensors to Automatically Register Changes in Locomotion or Behavior - Animals 2015
- Developing precision livestock farming tools for precision dairy farming - Animal Frontiers 1/2017
Government
- Calls for national cattle tracking system follow Michigan’s success - Great Lakes Echo 5/2018
- 'Fitbit for cows' set to revolutionise beef industry from paddock to plate - ABC News Australia 3/2018
- Cattle theft in Kenya is being tackled with remote-tracking chip technology - Quartz 2/2018
Government Tracing Projects
- U.S. Beef Cattle Identification and Traceability Systems - World Perspectives 1/2018
- Kansas: CattleTrace for animal disease
Blockchain
- UK Government Body Completes Pilot Tracking Beef Supplies on the Blockchain - Telegraph 7/2018
- Free-Range Beef Bound By The Blockchain - Forbes 5/2018
- A blockchain for the Dairy industry? - Connecterra 1/2018
Get a complete industry overview with our livestock tracking report. View complete list of companies, product overviews, market map, successful use cases, and investment activity to stay ahead in your business
