Cattle in Australia and New Zealand are now being tracked through LoRaWAN in real time. Integrated with livestock smart tagging firm Smart Paddock’s Bluebell GPS ear tag, the Semtech LoRa solution is allowing farmers to analyse cattle behavioural data in real time to identify potential issues.

According to Smart Paddock, over 1,200 Bluebell smart GPS ear tags have been deployed over the last three years across farm properties in Australia and New Zealand and more than 10,000 deployments are planned in the next year. Bluebell provides farmers with a network solution which can support and encourage farmers to add other operational Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to their farms to monitor water level, and set up electric fences that utilise an existing LoRaWAN network.

“To develop Smart Paddock’s GPS livestock ear tag, we researched and evaluated all the wireless communications protocols available on the market,” said Darren Wolchyn, CEO and founder of Smart Paddock. “To meet our customer needs of a low cost ear tag that could be deployed in the thousands over large farm properties, LoRaWAN came out on top of all other technologies for its long distance capabilities.”

“Smart Paddock’s utilisation of LoRaWAN is a proven example of where IoT technology is actively shaping the future of farming to be smarter and more efficient,” said Marc Pégulu, vice president of IoT product marketing and strategy for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “The unparalleled benefits of LoRa devices that both minimise expenses and reduce environmental impact of any IoT solution is promising for the field of smart agriculture.”