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cstahr
...predicting ovulation, temperature, movement ... all these beg MeirG's ...
Jim03R
RFID plus ovulation (estrus) detection tags for dairy cows have been ...
MEMS MooMonitor tracks herd
R Colin Johnson
2/1/2013 2:01 AM EST
PORTLAND,
Ore.--Farm animals may be the next big thing for MEMS sensors, now that
international bovine-gear maker Dairymaster is hawking a stylish
micro-electro-mechanical system collar for cows called the MooMonitor.
The stakes are huge, since there are over 250 million dairy cows worldwide, according to the UK's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and over 1 billion each of sheep and pigs, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Dairymaster (Kerry, Ireland) is pioneering the use of MEMS sensors with cows while startups such as Anemon (Saint-Imier, Switzerland) are expanding from bovine into other livestock breeds.
"The MEMS industry should be taking a much closer look at agriculture and its related industries," said Alissa Fitzgerald, founder of the MEMS product development company A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates LLC (Burlingame, Calif.) "Agriculture could potentially be the next big market opportunity for MEMS sensors."
Dairymaster's MooMonitor tracks a herd, monitors each cows activity, letting them in and out of automatic doors and detects when they are ovulating.
MooMonitors contain a MEMS accelerometer to monitor activity as well as RFID tags that not only track a cow's whereabouts, but lets them in-and-out to pasture and milking facilities through automatic doors keyed to their collars. However, the big money saver, according to Dairymaster, is the MooMonitor's ability to interface with a smartphone app that notifies farmers when a cow is ovulating.
According to Dairymaster, ovulation happens at night the majority of the time, often not giving farmers enough time to get a bull to the scene for calf making. By monitoring the restlessness and temperature of cows at night, the app can notify farmers 24/7 as to which cow needs a bull tonight, potentially saving the U.S. dairy industry alone more than $300 million a year.
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The stakes are huge, since there are over 250 million dairy cows worldwide, according to the UK's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and over 1 billion each of sheep and pigs, according to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Dairymaster (Kerry, Ireland) is pioneering the use of MEMS sensors with cows while startups such as Anemon (Saint-Imier, Switzerland) are expanding from bovine into other livestock breeds.
"The MEMS industry should be taking a much closer look at agriculture and its related industries," said Alissa Fitzgerald, founder of the MEMS product development company A.M. Fitzgerald & Associates LLC (Burlingame, Calif.) "Agriculture could potentially be the next big market opportunity for MEMS sensors."
Dairymaster's MooMonitor tracks a herd, monitors each cows activity, letting them in and out of automatic doors and detects when they are ovulating.
Source: Dairymaster
MooMonitors contain a MEMS accelerometer to monitor activity as well as RFID tags that not only track a cow's whereabouts, but lets them in-and-out to pasture and milking facilities through automatic doors keyed to their collars. However, the big money saver, according to Dairymaster, is the MooMonitor's ability to interface with a smartphone app that notifies farmers when a cow is ovulating.
According to Dairymaster, ovulation happens at night the majority of the time, often not giving farmers enough time to get a bull to the scene for calf making. By monitoring the restlessness and temperature of cows at night, the app can notify farmers 24/7 as to which cow needs a bull tonight, potentially saving the U.S. dairy industry alone more than $300 million a year.
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iniewski
2/1/2013 12:02 PM EST
Why stop at cows and sheep...let's tag all animals with these MEMs sensors and create Internet of Animals (IoA)! ;-)...remember I coined the IoA acronym first
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MeirG
2/4/2013 12:03 PM EST
And why not people...?
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GoGoGeek
2/1/2013 1:41 PM EST
Tracking cows? This is not new! I heard Ceitec in Brazil is doing that for years. They call it "Chip do Boi" a Brazilian-built RFID chips.
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yalanand
2/2/2013 11:37 AM EST
@GoGoGeek thanks for the update. Did "Chip do Boi" use MEMS technology ? How different or similar was this product compared to MooMonitor ?
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GoGoGeek
2/2/2013 1:46 PM EST
I don't think Ceitec use MEMS accelerometer to monitor activity of the cow. Ceitec does not make the chips they use Xfab, as fa as I know. I think they real key is the RFID tag. Sure, it's great to use MEMS but I am not sure what the benefit of MEMS here realy is or is this just a novelty in experimental stage?.
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Tim W
2/4/2013 11:19 AM EST
MEMS value was clearly stated - a MEMS accelerometer measures the cow's movement. The value is predicting ovulation by combining restlessness (as measured by the accelermoter) and the cow's body temperature.
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purkinje
2/1/2013 3:17 PM EST
"The stakes are huge"? Should be "The steaks are huge"!
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iniewski
2/1/2013 4:01 PM EST
How about each steak gets an electronic signature on what the cow did in her lifetime...in top notch restaurant you will be able to preselect your cow based on MEMs sensor gather data, there will be an app for that of course...talk about value added food! (tongue firmly in cheek) ;-)
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eewiz
2/3/2013 8:38 AM EST
Part of this really exists in Japan. ie they track the food in supply chain with RFID tags. so that when we go to grocery shop, we can track the "journey" of the food from farm till shop and make a decision.
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yalanand
2/2/2013 11:34 AM EST
Good to see technology like MEMS reaching agriculture and its related industry. By creating such products companies will find new customers for themselves.
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Jim03R
2/4/2013 12:42 PM EST
RFID plus ovulation (estrus) detection tags for dairy cows have been commercially available since the 1980's. Until about 2000, all tags, from various companies, were manufactured under license of US Patent 4,247,758 and numerous foriegn patents. The motion sensor was a mercury switch.
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cstahr
2/10/2013 11:35 PM EST
...predicting ovulation, temperature, movement ... all these beg MeirG's question again: why not people?
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