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Smart Cow Collars

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61–70 of 75 posts

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#61
post #46

On my grandfather's ranch, he had those rows of pipes laid in the ground with spaces between them at the road entrance. The cows couldn't walk across them, but your car would do just fine. When he made a back entrance, he just painted white lines instead of the more expensive pipe setup. He'd learned from neighboring ranches that once the cows understand the pipes, they won't walk across the painted lines. And, I don…

I've heard a similar story about an experiment with monkeys, apparently called the 'five monkeys experiment' [1].

A group of monkeys were put in a room with a ladder leading to a banana. When a monkey touches the banana, sprinklers turn on and soak the room. The monkeys quickly learnt to ignore the banana to avoid getting wet, and even physically stopped newly introduced monkeys (who were unaware of the sprinklers) from climbing the ladder.

The entire group was eventually replaced one by one. The replacement group had never seen the consequence of climbing the ladder, but policed eachother as well as any new members from eating the banana.

[1] https://workingoutloud.com/blog/the-five-monkeys-experiment-...

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#63
post #9

What problem is this solving? Is a fence too expensive?

Moving a virtual fence is easier than moving a real one, and virtual fences only hold back cattle, not other wildlife or humans.

I also expect that, for cattle grazing on land that isn’t very green, fencing indeed can be expensive. Reading https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/ranching/stocking... (IMO worth it, if only for the heading “Not Every Cow is An Animal Unit”. That article wasn’t written by a physicist), there are areas where so little is growing that each cow needs 30+ acres of land (top-quality grassland can get close to 1 acre per cow, but such land ¿typically/always? needs care by the farmer, such as the use of fertilizer)

Larger pastures per cow means more fence per cow.

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#64
post #61
post #46

On my grandfather's ranch, he had those rows of pipes laid in the ground with spaces between them at the road entrance. The cows couldn't walk across them, but your car would do just fine. When he made a back entrance, he just painted white lines instead of the more expensive pipe setup. He'd learned from neighboring ranches that once the cows understand the pipes, they won't walk across the painted lines. And, I don…

I've heard a similar story about an experiment with monkeys, apparently called the 'five monkeys experiment' [1]. A group of monkeys were put in a room with a ladder leading to a banana. When a monkey touches the banana, sprinklers turn on and soak the room. The monkeys quickly learnt to ignore the banana to avoid getting wet, and even physically stopped newly introduced monkeys (who were unaware of the sprinklers) f…

The five monkey experiment is only a fable. See [1].

[1] http://www.throwcase.com/2014/12/21/that-five-monkeys-and-a-...

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#65
post #58

I did some digging around in this field and I tend to like the approach from smaxtec[1] a lot more. Since they measure all the metrics from within the cow, their solution can't be lost or damaged. And if the sensor is in for a lifetime(as they promise), maintenance is about zero I guess. [edit]Location is a thing they can't do by the looks of it. Guess a GPS signal is weak if being recieved in the cow. [1] https://sm…

It seems as though the Nedap Livestock management approach is a bit easier to apply, plus it does location within buildings[1]. Love the hololens integration as well[2].

[1] https://www.nedap-livestockmanagement.com/dairy-farming/solu... [2] https://www.nedap-livestockmanagement.com/dairy-farming/solu...

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#66
post #46

On my grandfather's ranch, he had those rows of pipes laid in the ground with spaces between them at the road entrance. The cows couldn't walk across them, but your car would do just fine. When he made a back entrance, he just painted white lines instead of the more expensive pipe setup. He'd learned from neighboring ranches that once the cows understand the pipes, they won't walk across the painted lines. And, I don…

> he had those rows of pipes laid in the ground with spaces between them at the road entrance

Yes, exactly, a.k.a. Cattle Grid [0]. They are heavily used in the UK in National Parks where there are free-ranging livestock (horses, cattle, etc). There is one just a mile from where I live, at the edge of the New Forest.

> but your car would do just fine.

If only the tourists realised this! Locals take them at speed and you just shoot across them and the speed evens out the bumpiness. Tourists take them slow which makes them much more noisy and bumpy. That said if you try to turn on them (e.g. if you haven't straightened up from a junction) they can cause a significant skid risk, especially when they are wet.

Finally, many of the local ones have little escape ramps for small animals (e.g. hedgehogs) that fall in and then would otherwise get trapped in the pit below the pipes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_grid

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#67
post #64
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard a similar story about an experiment with monkeys, apparently called the 'five monkeys experiment' [1]. A group of monkeys were put in a room with a ladder leading to a banana. When a monkey touches the banana, sprinklers turn on and soak the room. The monkeys quickly learnt to ignore the banana to avoid getting wet, and even physically stopped newly introduced monkeys (who were unaware of the sprinklers) f…

The five monkey experiment is only a fable. See [1]. [1] http://www.throwcase.com/2014/12/21/that-five-monkeys-and-a-...

Yes. Whoever developed it has obviously never seen real primate behaviour which is usually totally driven by what the alpha male thinks or does. A low ranker who tried to police the alpha would get a serious beating.

They never even say what sort of Monkey it is.

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#68

Very cool. I wonder if one day we'll have neuralink technology down so commonplace that we could just RC animals directly.

> ...we could just RC animals directly. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/04/cockroach-ro...

Amazing! Thank you for sharing!

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, man, instead of paying someone to teach me something I could have them do it with my body and just follow along in the background. The jump in pedagogy would be amazing. I'd pay for that. Like someone holding your hand through something except the memory remains afterwards. Ah, amazing. Maybe when I'm reading, someone else controls my arm to do bicep curls. Fuck me, this is amazing.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804529/

Haha, of course someone's thought of this. Did you enjoy the movie?

Re: Smart Cow Collars

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804529/

Haha, of course someone's thought of this. Did you enjoy the movie?

Hmm. It was watchable, but not overwhelmingly so. But no trash either.

edit: Also, along the lines of "be careful what you wish for", the alltime classic "Brainstorm" from 1983 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271 comes to mind.

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