CANBERRA, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Australia's peak scientific agency has developed a tool to help farmers track the fitness and location of their livestock.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) joined forces with agriculture technology startup Ceres Tag to develop the ear tag, which delivers data similar to that provided by a smart watch.
By using accelerometers, the tags can send out signals warning of unusual patterns that could indicate an animal is either sick or giving birth.
Farmers will also be able to use the devices to track their herds and their grazing patterns, potentially saving them thousands of dollars in manual tracking costs.
The ear tag is designed to survive for the entire lifespan of an animal.
"Ceres Tag gives greater transparency over grazing management, allowing farmers to locate and monitor their animals, to reduce risk and operating costs and to improve efficiency and assist with traceability," Ceres Tag's chief executive David Smith said in a media release on Tuesday.
"The ear tag is GPS-enabled, allowing farmers to track the location of individual animals remotely, via Internet of Things (IoT) capability," David said.
The ear tag has been successfully trialled on 100 cattle at a CSIRO research station. It will be exhibited at Meat and Livestock Australia's Red Meat 2018 event in Canberra on Nov. 22 and 23, as well as the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture in Brisbane the following week.
"Aussie farmers need every bit of help they can get right now, so we are pleased that it has taken less than a year for this technology to move from the research phase into development for a real-world trial on cattle," CSIRO Group Leader Ed Charmley said.
"Our focus for future iterations is to create a smaller and lighter tag, as well as added functionality such as a temperature sensor, which could alert farmers to illnesses at an earlier stage." the group leader said.
