10 ms·
A smart collar for cows
- lhorie 5y agoSuspiciously absent is info on the battery life of these collars. How does one go about changing them? Do you line up 100+ cows every few days and just sit there for a couple of hours changing batteries every time?
- miltonsopus 5y agoThey are solar-powered, according to the article and company website.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- slmjkdbtl 5y agoIs this safe to use in SM plays
- cheese_goddess 5y agoYou really shouldn't do that with a cow.
- slmjkdbtl 5y agoDo you mean physically or morally
- helge9210 5y agoThere are devices like this one designed for humans and generally called "smart watch".
- t0mbstone 5y agoAutomated cows. Wow... I honestly never thought I would hear of such a thing. It totally makes sense though!
- akomtu 5y agoThat was the theme of Quake2: captured humans were "automated" with implants. Today we start with cows, in 50 years we extend this to violent criminals and who knows, maybe in 100 years most of us will be automated for "safety reasons".
- jessaustin 5y agoIf all it takes is noise, vibration, and GPS they won't even have to use collars. Our phones already have those functions.
- WithinReason 5y agoAnd they control us already
- williamtrask 5y agoIt’s weird but I get it. We already did fences so why not a collar I guess. Might be more anxiety inducing though. I prefer walls myself over a collar
- tuatoru 5y agoCows already obey electric fences which are basically just a piece of string. (When really stressed/agitated they walk right through electric fences, apparently without much additional distress.) This is just a wireless electric fence. Cue joke about the old lady and radio telegraphy[1]. :-) 1. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=no%20cat https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=no%20cat
- adventured 5y agoI think the parent's premise is that the cows can't see a well defined fenceline with the smart collar, to visually know to stop, whereas they can with an electric fence (or other types of physical fencing). And that lack of visual cue would induce anxiety in the cow, perhaps not being as certain where it can go.
- tbabb 5y agoThe article says that there is an audio cue. The cow will hear a beep long before it gets zapped. It's the same as for invisible fences with pet collars.
- saalweachter 5y agoRe: visual cues, a de-powered electric fence almost works as well as a powered-on fence. (It doesn't, because cows will reach through and around a fence to get bites of tall grass on the other side, and if it doesn't shock them at that point they'll start pushing through to reach more.)
- Torkel 5y ago”cows can be trained to navigate using the collar within 4-5 days” Umm, that sounds… labor intensive?
- ska 5y agoprobably not when compared to > allows farmers to save 20-40 hours per week and increase pasture utilization by up to 10%.
- tuatoru 5y agoQuite likely you only need to train the leaders in each herd of 100 - 200. The leaders will keep the rest in line.
- jessaustin 5y agoCattle have individual personalities. Some like to stay centered within the herd, and some prefer to be hundreds of yards away. When left to find their own way in a large enclosure, my cattle typically form much smaller groups, like 15-20. This might not matter, if a particular pasture can be protected by controlling the herd's general behavior. If we had this system the first thing to do would be to stop all this shitting on the road!
- dmurray 5y ago> If we had this system the first thing to do would be to stop all this shitting on the road! To not inconvenience drivers and other road users, or to get that precious manure back fertilizing your grass?
- jessaustin 5y agoDefinitely the former, although I suppose the latter would also be an improvement...
- notatoad 5y agodepends what "training" means. it could be as simple as herding the cows as you normally would while also giving them the nagivational instructions from the collar at the same time, and then after 5 days you can start using the collar only.
- Bellend 5y agoSomething about this made me feel sad although I can't convey why. "Control your cow through our app".
- chris_wot 5y agoUnlike controlling a cow by yelling at them and herding them with cattle dogs?
- elromulous 5y agoPerhaps how impersonal / detached it is?
- pgcj_poster 5y agoMaybe deep down you know that it's wrong for humans to treat other sentient beings as products.
- timeon 5y agoWell this improves things. But farming animals is still perverse.
- robwwilliams 5y agoLove to see this tech adapted to small rodents. Would provide new measures of learning and memory in complex environments. rwilliams@uthsc.edu
- veb 5y agoThis is a pretty awesome New Zealand company, been following them since they first got funding. I love farm tech! Another is OmniEye: https://www.irisdata.co.nz/omnieye https://www.irisdata.co.nz/omnieye I've seen this in person and it's fantastic stuff. I note in the article they say "Holy cow!" as a play on words I guess, but here in Dunedin we have a milk company called Holy Cow: https://www.holycow.nz/ https://www.holycow.nz/ It's wonderful milk.
- ElCapitanMarkla 5y agoAlways great to see a company from my city on here. This line on their page always cracks me up “creators of the world’s first sheep facial recognition model”
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rsxnt 5y agoIn Massachusetts this is also used on humans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Rotenberg_Educational_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Rotenberg_Educational_Ce...
- jessaustin 5y agoIs it OK that I'm happy this awful place still bears his name? Surely his heirs are embarrassed by this point...
- kiddico 5y agoThis is the sort of wiki page that guarantees I'll blow my brains out far before I admit myself to an institution.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- akomtu 5y agoJRC looks like a small concentration camp with powerful supporters. Employees don't have it easy there too: "Employees are encouraged to file anonymous reports against each other, and are forbidden from making casual conversation." And this is the icing on the cake: "As of 2014, nearly 90% of the center's residents were from New York City, and about 90% of the residents were racial minorities."
- flyinglizard 5y agoI’ll just add that smart collars and sensors are pretty much the norm on cows, at least in Western Europe (which is generally at the forefront in terms of animal care and food safety regulations). The novelty here is the remote herdkeeping functions. The limit to adapting such tech is usually collar cost and battery life (the industry usually aims for 5+ years of battery life). Of course the environment is pretty hostile too. Neck collars get snagged on things, exposed to mud and rain, etc. Anyway, it’s not like “technology finally makes it to farms”. Dairy cows are the worlds most monitored animals.
- prawn 5y agoI did some video work for a Dutch company selling such tech into Australia. Quite amazing to see it upfront. One dairy family talked about how it took them from scraping by to rekindling their enthusiasm for their farm. That particular farm had collars and auto-switching gates plus four milking robots.
- mkaic 5y agolooking forward to the birth of a new job title in tandem with this product becoming popular: bovine cybersecurity expert! in all seriousness though, i'd be surprised if we don't see at least one comical headline in the future about cows being hacked and remote-controlled!
- earleybird 5y agoCVE-2022-2341 Udder overflow, cow unable to return for milking
- jessaustin 5y agoCattle destroy everything they can reach that isn't manufactured from steel. We have to build fences over our water tanks to prevent them from destroying automatic water valves. If they can get to e.g. a phone pedestal it is flattened within a week. Properly-built barbed wire fences deter them, but as soon as a post or wire loosens they're going through. Ear tags were a major innovation, in that they are made of plastic, in constant reach of cattle, and typically are only destroyed at a rate (I'm estimating here) of one per year per twenty cattle. I know that collars have been used to e.g. attach bells to cattle, and the pictures at the Halter site seem solidly-constructed, but I do wonder about reliability... Pastures are most productive when cattle eat the grass in an individual section to a particular minimum height, and then are moved to the next section. Cattle are fairly easily controlled via trivial annoyances (which makes various barbaric methods like hotshots used by some ranchers particularly unethical), so it makes sense that noise/vibration could move them in a particular direction. There would probably be some leakage, since different individuals have different personalities and tolerances. It looks like you could see the animals who escape on the map in the app, so that would be nice. Since we AI quite a bit the heat detection would be great. I wonder how it works? Maybe the collars communicate their relative positions to each other?
- strict9 5y ago>Virtual fences keep the cows in designated areas, While the idea of vibrating collars to steer cattle makes me uneasy (what comes next?), I am somewhat hopeful this can address the issue of barbed wire fences. Interestingly, the idea of remotely controlling cattle was discussed several years ago in an article outlining the the issues with fences: https://prairieecologist.com/2015/03/17/hubbard-fellowship-blog-the-trouble-with-fences/ https://prairieecologist.com/2015/03/17/hubbard-fellowship-b...
- DyslexicAtheist 5y agothere is no way a vibrating collar will stop a cow in doing what they want to do. Cows are herd animal meaning they fight to establish rank. There is no way 2 cows close to a fence can be stopped from breaching the fence, no matter if it's barbed wire or if the fence carries 20K Volts. They will walk right through it - or better push each other right through it during a fight. Not even an electric shock would stop them and a vibration collar even less.
- freedomben 5y agoI can confirm, numerous times I've seen cows grazing or even running with barbed wire and fence posts dragging behind them. When they've decided they want to do something, it's pretty hard to stop them.
- chris_wot 5y agoI don’t think the point of the collar is to stop a cow going somewhere stupid, but rather to influence them to move to feeding areas and milking stations. If a cow automatically moves to the right area then they don’t have to be herded. This reduces time. Some cows will likely need encouragement but it sounds like this reduces not only time, but stress on the livestock. Fences are still likely needed.
- markdown 5y agoWhat's wrong with barbed wire fences?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- immmmmm 5y agoin switzerland we call that a bell. coupled with extremely sensitive sensors we call ears, farmers can find a lost cow far away in the mountain. bonus point: tourists love those so much you can buy smaller models at the airport.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Gustomaximus 5y agoWhat is 'far away' in Switzerland? I'm in Australia and have a small beef farm and there no way a bell could let you know where cows always are. They get into a gully on the other side of your property etc sound wont travel. I only have a small property I run as a side business vs many family farmers on thousands or 10's of thousands of acres. The really big properties get I to millions. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_stations_in_Australia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_stations... Also a bell doesn't stop them getting through a fence and into your neighbours property or heading bush. A big part of this tech is pasture management. Ideally you want to keep a herd moving so they only eat the top third of pasture and move on. This can help automate that task. Not least what they mention about real time feedback about cattle health. I don't doubt bells are useful, but this tech is at another level of helpfulness. It's a smart phone vs yelling difference. The big question is cost and measurable benifit. Having to mesh wifi a large property won't be cheap (maybe just water points for daily updates?), the cost per collar and how long they last and how this plays into grazing and health benifits will decide how viable this tech is.
- krasin 5y agoThank you for these insights. I just want to add that mesh wifi is not necessary here. Given the amount of bandwidth needed (very little), LoRaWAN (1) with its ~3-10km range will be quite practical. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa
- immmmmm 5y agopasture management is indeed a big one, i heard that proper herding can increase drastically soil carbon intake in some cases. i do doubt however that climate management is the primary goal of most industrial farm with 1+ million cows. my comment was on the hi/low tech joke side originally, but i wonder if a technology that would allow even more industrial farming is a good thing.
- codetrotter 5y agohttps://smartbjella.no/ https://smartbjella.no/ and https://elektronikknett.no/Artikkelarkiv/2017/Juni/Storpilot-for-sporing-av-sau https://elektronikknett.no/Artikkelarkiv/2017/Juni/Storpilot... are a couple of similar examples of using smart collars on live stock.
- Borrible 5y agoAlmarai, probably still the largest milk producer in the world with its main production facilities in Saudi Arabia, simply turned off the air conditioning in the right place at the right time, and the cattle herded freely to where it wanted to. Coincidentally, exactly where the herders also wanted them to go. Impressive. Cows are just like any other people. So for cow logistics rising global temperatures may come in handy! Of course, in the long run you may have to tinker a bit with the heat resistance of these organisms. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Effect-of-Evaporative-Cooling-in-Alleviating-in-Ali-Al-Haidary/06387260c1e235369d6f091ce8beed03df850599 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Effect-of-Evaporat... Nah, just kidding... Sweet dreams.
- rapjr9 5y agoI worked on research in electronically herding cows for a while: https://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/animals_robots/cow_herding/cow_herding.html https://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/animals_robots/cow_herding/... The collar you see there had a Zaurus PDA which ran the herding algorithm and managed the ad-hoc peer-to-peer wireless network between the cows. Each collar also had a GPS unit and a tiny guitar amplifier/speaker was used to amplify the sounds (WAV files played by the Zaurus). We had only minor success in using sounds to herd them, mostly they would ignore the sounds after a while. CSIRO in Australia and a USDA researcher who patented the idea 20+ years ago extended the work further eventually using electric shocks from an ear tag to train the cattle to associate a sound with a shock, then later using just the sound to manage the cattle. They got very good results with this while minimizing the stress on the cattle due to shocks. So I'm somewhat dubious that this company has had much success with just a buzzing sound. Even shocks won't stop a cow if it is determined. They are herd animals however and feel uncomfortable if away from the herd, so if most of the herd obeys eventually the stragglers will come round. We stopped working on it when we started getting inquiries from companies wanting to use the technology on prisoners. Herding people electronically is just wrong. We also talked with an animal ethics researcher who was concerned that the cattle would not be visited by the ranchers as often and would suffer because of it. For example, sensors can tell you if a cow has a fever but not if it has a stone in its hoof. If you trust the sensors too much and don't visit the animals as much the animals can be harmed.
- causi 5y agoAh, Zaurus. Those devices were way before their time. Maybe Pinephone will eventually fill that space.
- adamauckland 5y agoSo I actually started a business back in 2012 specifically for animal tracking on farms (cows and sheep). We tried BLE, image detection, loads of different approaches which worked at "prototype scale", the problems were: 1. Farms are geographically big, tend to have hills and metal stuff which bounces signals all over the place. LoRa is slow, BLE has a short area. If you're close enough to connect with the cow, you might as well get out the truck and do whatever it is yourself. 2. Animals, especially cows, can and will destroy anything they trample. That includes expensive dongles, wifi base stations, pipes, electric lines. This infrastructure is flimsy and hardening it costs money, especially against water ingress. 3. Cost. A $20 tech strapped to a $100 animal is a considerable percentage of your RoI. The margins are so low, it's just not worth doing this at scale. The thing is, there is no tech solution that does cattle herding better than a farmer.
- mdorazio 5y agoDid you look at drones recently? I ran into the same problems as you years ago on an outdoor monitoring PoC with stations spread over several dozen miles (it was cheaper to pay an intern than to deploy & upkeep the tech). For farming use cases, though, drones + CV at least seem to be a pretty decent solution to some problems.
- adamauckland 5y agoYeah, we've tried drones. Problem is identification. E-tags on animals require a proximity of below a metre and stock are jittery around flying robots. Like you said, it's actually easier to get a quadbike and go look.
- atdrummond 5y agoThis might not work for traditional livestock operations but for certain boutique farms and ranches (think farms raising Wagyu and other sought after breeds - and even non-meat concerns) the proportional cost is much lower - and the benefits potentially much higher, given the potential economic losses if certain animals (such as a prized stud) were to encounter some kind of preventable incident.
- 5y ago