Semtech uses LoRa to track cattle

  • March 7, 2022
  • Steve Rogerson

Semtech is using LoRaWan technology to help Australian company Smart Paddock track cattle.

Smart Paddock’s Bluebell smart GPS ear tag remotely monitors livestock via Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWan standard.

Smart Paddock provides smart tags for the livestock industry that produce real-time information. The collaboration features the implementation of Semtech’s LoRa devices into Smart Paddock’s GPS ear tag to monitor livestock location in real time as well as analyse the cattle’s behavioural data to solve real world livestock management problems.

“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 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.”

According to Smart Paddock, the Bluebell smart GPS ear tags are the smallest and lightest in the industry, with over 1200 tracking devices deployed over the past three years across farm properties in Australia and New Zealand and more than 10,000 deployments planned in the next year.

The tag can support and encourage farmers to add other operational IoT sensors to their farms to monitor water level and set up electric fences that use an existing LoRaWan.

“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 at Semtech. “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.”

Smart Paddock is an Australian company that provides a livestock management platform using smart GPS ear tags that provide real-time information on the health status, behaviour and accurate GPS location of all the animals in the herd while they are still out in the paddock.