A smart collar for cows

I just want to add that mesh wifi is not necessary here. Given the amount of bandwidth needed (very little), LoRaWAN (1) with its ~3-10km range will be quite practical.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoRa

https://groups.csail.mit.edu/drl/animals_robots/cow_herding/...

The collar you see there had a Zaurus PDA which ran the herding algorithm and managed the ad-hoc peer-to-peer wireless network between the cows. Each collar also had a GPS unit and a tiny guitar amplifier/speaker was used to amplify the sounds (WAV files played by the Zaurus). We had only minor success in using sounds to herd them, mostly they would ignore the sounds after a while. CSIRO in Australia and a USDA researcher who patented the idea 20+ years ago extended the work further eventually using electric shocks from an ear tag to train the cattle to associate a sound with a shock, then later using just the sound to manage the cattle. They got very good results with this while minimizing the stress on the cattle due to shocks. So I'm somewhat dubious that this company has had much success with just a buzzing sound. Even shocks won't stop a cow if it is determined. They are herd animals however and feel uncomfortable if away from the herd, so if most of the herd obeys eventually the stragglers will come round.

We stopped working on it when we started getting inquiries from companies wanting to use the technology on prisoners. Herding people electronically is just wrong.

We also talked with an animal ethics researcher who was concerned that the cattle would not be visited by the ranchers as often and would suffer because of it. For example, sensors can tell you if a cow has a fever but not if it has a stone in its hoof. If you trust the sensors too much and don't visit the animals as much the animals can be harmed.

Though having said that, the cows on the farms near where I grew up would line themselves up at the gate to be milked, and one farmer would just open the gate while another shooed the stragglers back towards the herd. If this thing is anything less than 100% effective it doesn't seem like it would save much work, since you'd still need someone on a quad bike to deal with the nuisances.

* more flexible and appropriate sizing of grazing areas based on current herd size and where the grass is literally greenest

* the above can also increase dairy yield per sq/m by a considerable amount (I can’t recall the exact numbers I was quoted)

* multiple startups I’ve spoken to in this area also think they’ll be able to use on device biometric sensors to detect when cows need to urinate. Before that happens herd them to dedicated area or drainage pans. Again expected increases in yields and less pasture damage.

* biometrics also provide early indicators of potential health issues.

Nothing wrong with wire fences though. They’ve clearly worked fine for over a hundred years.