IOT devices are transforming even the most remote industry. With more than 25 billion connected objects expected for 2020 (Gartner information), it’s impossible not to realize that everything around us is changing, from the way we communicate with each other to the way we work.

Cattle Industry Transformation

Cattle industry is no exception. Sensors and software are collecting data for farmers, opening up huge opportunities beyond increasing herd productivity. The engineering company Accent Systems provides an IOT-based solution to track beef livestock activities, prevent cattle rustling and illnesses, and facilitate cattle and livestock management.

A Solution Based on NB-IOT

The system consists of a tracker that employs NarrowBand-IOT (NB-IOT) technology. Once placed on a cow, it provides the geoposition of the animal in real-time and reduces costs as ranchers can easily locate their cattle and analyze movements.

Benefits of Tracking Livestock

Tracking beef livestock activities helps prevent cattle rustling, aids ranchers in understanding cattle behavior, and detects problems such as illness or separation from the herd to prevent disease spread. It is an IOT application for collecting data on cattle location, well-being, and health.

NB-IOT is the perfect wireless technology for tracking cow movements, enabling farmers to know where their livestock has been and when an infected cow might have contacted other animals. It is a LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technology, focused on connecting everyday “things” that send constant information streams in small quantities.

Compared to other technologies (such as SigFox, LoRa, or 3G/4G), NB-IOT offers lower subscription costs and battery consumption, optimizing information transfer. Additionally, it has greater indoor and outdoor reach and works with existing mobile phone antennas.

Data Collection and Analysis

The system is designed to provide a low-cost solution for tracking animals in ranch environments. It not only geolocates but also collects data through various sensors: temperature, accelerometer… and sends them to an IOT platform for immediate results in real-time.

Livestock Movement

One of the most important issues is to control and increase milk quality through IOT. The device provides data that can be used to correlate movements with specific behaviors, such as grazing, socializing, or lying down chewing the cud. This can help farmers enhance milk production by keeping cows healthier and improving breeding efficiency.

Cattle Rustling

The solution also facilitates cattle location in remote areas and provides theft early warning directly to the IOT platform. It also has an alert-based system that informs the farmer when a cow is out-of-range.

Fertility and Health

The device can tell the farmer whether the animal is walking too little or too much, which can indicate its health and whether it is in oestrus. Cows typically increase their walking as they enter a peak fertility phase, so the device can alert farmers to the best time for insemination.

In fact, the NB-IOT Tracker developed by Accent Systems is a monitoring solution for cattle producers, allowing farmers to convert raw data collected by sensors into valuable business insight.

Accent Systems is a global provider of innovative enterprise IOT solutions that offers a variety of standard products and develops tailored IOT solutions for third parties.