Скачать или смотреть Digital solutions for animal tagging and monitoring

Farmers have been monitoring animal performance for almost 100 years through tagging and manually recording results. But new technology has been developed to make keeping track of each animal even easier. Find out how you can use digital solutions to make animal tagging simpler.

● One of the most useful tools is electronic tagging. The digital solution guarantees more accurate information and automatically records it for you. The tags also capture a wider range of information, like drenching, vaccinations, and the movement of the animals.
● The electronic tags are based on Radio Frequency Identification or RFID, and each one has a unique radio frequency which the readers use to gather data remotely. The RFID readers are either mobile, like the wands, or fixed if they’re connected to the internet by plugging the reader into your computer. Some use WIFI or your phone’s bluetooth to send the data to your animal management software.
● The ability to accurately track animal performance through systems like RFID weigh scales provides farmers with greater insight into the effects of their on-farm decisions and can lead to changing graze rotations to increase the liveweight gain of the animals.
● Tagging and registering cattle and deer within 180 days of their birth or their first time leaving the farm is crucial, as moving unregistered cattle is an offence under the National Animal Identification and Tracing programme. So, these systems simplify your obligations as a farmer, recording animal treatments, births and deaths.

● Recent research in the dairy sector has established that small ear or collar-mounted sensors gather enough data to accurately predict how long an animal is moving, grazing, resting and ruminating.
● The sensors can also be used to predict if an animal is in-heat or injured based on its behaviour. In the more intensive dairy industry the predictions can be used to automatically draft animals.
● You can also utilise animal injectors and drench applicators, which adjust the dosage in real time based on the weight of the animal. For the cow collars or higher-end ear tag cow trackers, the information is retrieved from the sensors either as the animal passes through the shed or out in the pasture via an on-farm or cellular network.
● If you are unsure where to start, decipher which animal-management packages will suit your needs. Compare the different platforms and the tags and associated hardware to make sure your solution is compatible with your current software.
● Remember to look into what type of connectivity you will need on the farm to use the solution and what support the vendors offer. Also, do your research to make sure you are following the correct protocols, for example under the National Animal Identification and Training programme, everyone in charge of animals must record certain data digitally.
● Talk to other farmers about their preferred solutions or get in touch with companies like Gallagher, Tru-Test, AllFlex, Leader Products, Te Pari and Shearwell.