13 November 2007

4 minute read

North America

The electronics involved

At Costa View Farms in Madera, Calif., more than 6,000 dairy cows have been tagged with passive RFID transponders encoded with unique ID numbers. The identification system has saved workers there countless hours in searching for and treating the cows, improved the farm's animal records and even boosted milk production.

The farm is using an animal identification system (AES) from Valley Agriculture Software that includes three handheld RFID interrogators, headsets that workers wear to hear audible beeps when specific animals are located, associated software, desktop computers and Allflex USA's half-duplex RFID transponders embedded in small plastic discs. The transponders operate at 134.2 kHz, are compliant with the ISO 11784 tag data standard and the ISO 11785 tag air-interface standard, and can be read from up to a distance of 100 cm. The tags are designed to be inserted in the middle of the cow's ear between the two cartilage ribs close to the head.

Costa View Farms first started using RFID about four years ago, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began investigating the technology to monitor U.S. poultry and livestock populations so they could quickly and effectively trace animal disease to its source in the event of a breakout. At the time, many expected the USDA to mandate use of an animal identification system. While that hasn't yet happened, many farmers—like Costa View—decided to start implementing RFID technology so they could more easily track their individual animals.

"We decided if legislation was coming, we should take advantage of the [RFID] program and use it as a management tool," says Larry Pietrowski, co-owner of Costa View Farms. "And, if it ever becomes mandatory, we will have already fulfilled the requirements."

Using RFID to identify and track livestock is one of the fastest growing, and largest, RFID sectors to date, according to British research and analysis firm IDTechEx. In fact, the firm estimates that worldwide sales of RFID tags will rise from $233 million in 2007 to $2.93 billion in 2017, with livestock and food applications accounting for 90 percent of that total. Sales of RFID systems (including tags) used for farming, food and animals will rise from $531 million in 2007 worldwide to $6.53 billion in 2017 (see Food and Livestock Tagging Expected to See Bumper Gains).

Costa View Farms has tagged about 95 percent of its 6,800 cattle so it can easily identify the cows due their regiment of shots, and they document the cows that are treated. As part of a synchronized breeding program, the farm gives shots to approximately 250 cows to force ovulation every Tuesday and Wednesday; the cows are then bred three days later.

Using the handheld interrogators, workers are able to walk among the cows locked in their stanchions (the metal stalls in dairy barns that hold cows in place while they are milked) and quickly identify which cows are due the shots.

Here's how it works: Software running on the handheld interrogators is regularly synchronized with the Valley Agriculture's herd-management software running on desktop computers, which tracks each animal, the animal's shot schedule, veterinarian visits and pregnancies. When shots are given, an electronic list is compiled and downloaded to the handheld. As a worker pass the animals carrying a handheld interrogator and wearing a headset, the interrogator scans the ear tags (it takes about 1.5 seconds for the interrogator to scan a tag and correlate it with the software). When it discovers a tag that is on the electronic list, the system emits an audible beep and displays on the handheld the appropriate instructions.

In addition, the system is used when the veterinarian visits to determine if any cows are pregnant; if a cow is, that information is entered into the handheld and correlated with the cow's unique ID number. Every evening, the information from the handheld interrogators is downloaded into desktop computers. Using the Valley Agriculture program, Pietrowski can run reports at any time to see which cows have been given shots and which are pregnant.

The RFID system—which has replaced a manual paper-based system that required workers to visually searching for numbers printed on ear tags—has been a huge timesaver, he says. "When I used a paper list, it would take me about 45 minutes to walk one pen [containing about 280 animals]. Now, it takes us about 15 minutes to walk one pen," Pietrowski says. "And everything is much more accurate. When you are looking at a long list of animals, your eyes play tricks on you, and chances are you are going to miss an animal that is due shots."

Most important, though, the RFID system is boosting productivity. "The reason we got this system was to save time, and to get them through the process as quickly as possible so they can get out of the stanchions, get water, and lie down so they can be more comfortable," says Pietrowski.

More comfortable cows mean more milk. "I would say within the year and a half, we recouped what we spent, which was probably about $15,000," notes Pietrowski. "That's because of our added milk product, because the cows are lying down a lot more, and on labor, because now workers can do other things."

TheCattleSite News Desk