Like humans, there are Fitbit-like devices that dairy cattle wear all day long. More accurately, these devices are known as automated health monitoring systems.
Tera Baker, Marketing Manager with Nedap Livestock Management, shares more about their CowControl technology.
CowControl helps detect if a cow is in heat, when she’s inactive, eating, ruminating, location, and much more. This helps farmers to manage their herd and notice ailments before the physical signs of sickness occur.
“This technology helps getting cows pregnant be a less invasive process and allows farmers to sort out just the few animals that need attention when sorting,” says Baker. “It reduces labor, provides accurate data to help improve cow health and adjust protocols, and allows farmers to be more preventative rather than reactive.”
Nedap Livestock Management is also looking at taking this technology a step further and utilizing augmented reality. They are partnering with Microsoft to use their goggles and the CowContol software within that to display the health information of each cow above it in cyberspace.
As farmers and herdsmen are walking through the barn, it allows them to be hands-free and see those indicators about each animal, alerts that the animal needs immediate attention, pregnancy check data and more.
“Farmers are able to see the information that requires action on a real-time basis as they stroll through the barn and use their hands to swipe in the air to do the data entry that is needed,” adds Baker.
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