Far evolved from the early days of Pebble and Google Glass, wearable technology has been steadily gaining adoption since entering the mainstream via the launch of Apple Watch in 2015.
Indeed, Canadians have now moved on to innovating wearable tech for agricultural applications.
Research projects out of the University of Calgary oriented around innovating the beef sector via tech, such as using remote monitoring devices on bulls to gain valuable insights from the collected data, highlight an emerging trend of beef-tech.
For example, Dr. Ed Pajor is currently conducting a study that looks at identifying early disease indicators via wearable collars that could gather novel information on bull behaviour.
“What we hope to do is identify specific behaviours that could be used in more affordable technologies that would then be of use in predicting the onset of disease,” the professor of animal welfare at uCalgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine informed Melissa Jeffers-Bezan for Canadian Cattlemen. “There’s just so many advantages to . . . be able to treat and improve the health and productivity of your herd through the use of technology.”
Another study, started in 2020 by Dr. Jennifer Pearson, combines wearable tech with video surveillance to measure bulls in the field, evaluating their breeding soundness and other important metrics to ranchers.
Pearson, who completed her PhD at uCalgary investigating the impacts of calving management on the health and performance of beef calves in 2019, believes that technology could allow producers to select bulls with “certain behavioural characteristics and create breeding groups based on that behaviour prior to turnout.”
Beyond university research, private enterprises are also investing resources into Canada’s growing beef-tech market.
An example is OneCup AI, an Alberta-born ag-tech startup utilizing facial recognition technology on animals.
The company’s flagship product is BETSY, an AI-powered creation which consists of a small computing device and several cameras. Working onsite, BETSY is physically located where cattle gather, such as a watering hole, salt lick, or feeding station—and can track the health, growth, nutrition, activity, and phenotypes of a variety of species and breeds such as cattle, sheep, bison, pigs, goats, and dogs.
This type of assistance can take stress off of ranchers and other animal owners, OneCup believes.
“BETSY takes the initiative to notify the rancher by text and email if an urgent matter arises, such as a calving event or disease detection,” the company states online. Meanwhile, “BETSY uploads all her observations in the cloud, where they can be accessed for review, the entire historical dataset for individuals and herds.”
The data is rich for both individual animals—”At a granular level, every animal’s feature is readily accessible,” the startup says—as well as group trends, “providing a macro oversight of the performance of a herd’s operations.”
The camera-based cloud platform tracks disease indicators, such as coughing or limping, and various activity, from lying down to socializing. Food intake and output is also monitored, allowing “producers to determine optimal feed rations, cutting costs and optimizing feed schedules.”
Founded in 2019 by Geoffrey and Mokah Shmigelsky and Keith and Connie Day, OneCup AI received an investment from Tall Grass Ventures, a local venture capital firm interested in the future of agriculture and food, in 2022.
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