New Smart Tags changing the way feedlot operators think about continuous monitoring
Growing attention to animal welfare, antibiotics stewardship, as well as pressure on availability of manpower and cost efficiency – all present multiple ongoing challenges to feedlot operators.Despite advances in technology and the entrance of new players, commercial deployments of such IoA (Internet of Animals) for cattle in feedlots has not yet been adopted on a large scale.
TAGim™ was developed by Medisim Ltd., a well-established manufacturer of innovative and affordable clinical thermometers, was alerted of these challenges and committed to invest in developing and manufacturing a tailor-made livestock solution. Medisim leveraged its expertise and capabilities in the human medical sector to design-to-cost and manufacture-to-scale, a highly reliable and affordable solution, with industry requirements in mind. Medisim intends to spin-out this livestock technology into a separate company and is currently seeking co-investors and business partners.
“Performance and cost-effectiveness have been the key obstacles” says Yossi Wittman, VP Business Development of Medisim. “Over and over again we hear of digital solutions and animal wearable sensors, which have yet to offer a much-needed solution – an affordable, reliable and easy to embrace technology.”
“There have been many who tried to introduce sensor technology to the feedlot space” he adds. “Whoever can measure individual animals, with an inexpensive smart ear tag, will overcome the 1st roadblock of adoption, providing added value, in this tight-margin industry.”
TAGim™ is a remote animal monitoring system based on an industry standard, disposable feedlot tag, with a visual ID number form-factor, encapsulating an electronic printed circuit with sensors, battery and Bluetooth transmitter. The standard and easy to install tag collects 24/7 temperature, movement and feeding data, and uses the aggregated data in order to provide animal health state scoring. The data is presented online to authorized users, and a smart assignment engine generates pen-rider pull-lists on a dedicated mobile App.
One of the first farmers to experiment with TAGim™ is Eyal Muller, who owns feed yards in the North of Israel.
“I have been receiving automatic notifications about sick animals before I could see any visual cues of its illness” says Muller. “It was amazing that I could get this head’s up, pull the animal and treat it before it got worse.”
In fact, this is the story of the industry, many times there are few if any visual cues early in the disease process, so the ability to alert and treat early can make a huge difference in animal’s welfare and consequently in the feedlot’s economics.
TAGim™’s value proposition is straightforward - a low-cost pay-per-tag model, without additional costs to the feedlot; continuous monitoring of three important health indicators; no additional handling for tag installation or removal; and a pen-rider smartphone app to identify and find suspected to be unwell animals to pull.
For more information, please visit tagimtech.com
TheCattleSite News Desk