Precision Animal, a provider of animal behaviour monitoring, is using IoT connectivity from Eseye to improve farming and agriculture with continuous monitoring.

The partnership combines Eseye’s global IoT connectivity with Kansas-based Precision Animal’s Redi remote early disease identification system to monitor animal behaviour and detect sickness symptoms, transforming collected data into actionable information using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) that improves animal welfare management and treatment.

Farmers equipped with this can gain real-time access to critical information, empowering them to make informed decisions and optimise operations while reducing resource consumption. Deploying these insights at scale can increase cattle yield while improving animal welfare, strengthening the beef and milk supply chain while lowering costs.

Many cattle die each year from bovine respiratory disease (BRD), which represents the leading cause of mortality in growing cattle and causes an estimated $1bn in economic losses in the US beef industry. Cattle owners monitor each animal’s health, which is costly and time-consuming when done manually. Additionally, the complexity of diagnosing a medical problem in an individual calf within herds of up to 500 at a time often leads to slow diagnosis and treatment, causing hardship for animals and economic loss for cattle operations.

“What we found through some of our research is if you actually monitor cattle behaviour – daily, hourly – what you find is early in the illness part,” said veterinarian Brad White, professor at Kansas State University and a partner in Precision Animal. “They actually spend a lot more time at the herd; they spend a lot more time trying to hide in the group early in the disease process.”

When suffering with BRD, cattle also eat and drink less than normal. To this point, BRD is difficult to identify before it is too late. Precision Animal started exploring the development of the wireless-enabled Redi to automate the discovery of BRD for cattle producers. The Redi system uses animal behavioural data for cattle wellness determination and has been shown to increase diagnostic accuracy compared with a manual observation.

Eseye was able to work with Precision Animal and deliver the technology to take this from concept to reality and perform a successful field trial. Using IoT hardware expertise, Eseye worked with Precision Animal to design and develop an industry-standard, animal-safe, reusable bovine tracker that lets Redi continuously monitor cattle feeding and drinking frequency, social behaviour, and activity patterns. This combines edge processing capabilities to facilitate the receipt, storage and subsequent transmission of the tracker’s data to the cloud.

Coupled with Eseye’s managed connectivity services, it enables remote monitoring, access and over-the-air (OTA) configuration of connected equipment, without physically mobilising staff and resources to sites.

The results of the pilot were profound. Previous research illustrated Redi generated 81% accuracy of correct disease calls compared with the human observation of 64%. When an animal of interest has been identified, a light on the wireless tracker will identify the cow so it can be quarantined, treated and saved.

Eseye offered end-to-end IoT including a blend of hardware and architecture expertise, device design services, and hardware proof of concepts, combined with its multi-carrier and resilient IoT connectivity, deployment services and long-term device design, software and hardware support. Consideration was taken to ensure suitability for various environments, including different weather conditions and easy placement on cattle, so as not to interfere with normal operational flow.

“We unsuccessfully tried so many other off-the-shelf technologies before we found Eseye,” said White. “Eseye was able to provide a custom device-first approach to our unique use case, developed after a series of conversations. As our relationship evolved, it became clear that Eseye was the partner we needed to develop the IoT hardware for our project. The potential is well beyond just looking at respiratory disease. I don’t see it supplanting people that are doing those jobs but rather augmenting their ability to do them better. Looking into the future, with support from Eseye, we plan to start deployments in North America across a large number of connected cattle.”

Kieran McNamara, Eseye’s general manager in North America, added: “We are thrilled to be at the heart of this ground-breaking technology, bridging the gap between the digital and agricultural worlds, and proactively diagnosing BRD before it’s too late. By enabling farmers to harness the power of IoT, we aim to revolutionise traditional farming practices, making them more efficient, sustainable and ultimately more productive. This strategic partnership highlights Eseye’s commitment to drive technological advancements and foster economic growth within the agricultural sector.”

www.eseye.com

www.precisionanimalsolutions.com