What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
A Gujarat-based dairy equipment production company has developed a smart system by using artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things that lets farmers know when to inseminate their cows.
Now, a ₹3,500-smart collar strapped to a cow’s neck will let its owner know if the cattle’s temperature has reached a point to inseminate the animal. The timely pregnancy of the cow would save a significant investment and time for animal farmers.
The Cow Collar is part of a smart system — Connected Cow — developed by Anand-based IDMC Limited, a dairy equipment production company, using artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The system is equipped with a location tracker, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), and an accelerometer. It can track the temperature and physical activity, and health of the cow.
The system is being showcased by the company at the IDF World Dairy Summit 2022 which is underway in Greater Noida near Delhi.
“Generally, the high temperature of the cow means she is ready for insemination. But it is very difficult for a farmer to physically check her temperature. The device — Cow Collar — lets farmers know the cow’s temperature and alerts them when it touches a particular point,” told Bhavesh Modi, a senior management official of IDMC Limited, to The New Indian.
He further said if it is done right, leading to pregnancy, it will benefit farmers. “If farmers miss the opportunity, they will bear losses in the form of milk and calf.”
“The Cow Collar detects and tracks a cow’s physical activity based on an average of 7-14 days. Whenever the graph goes above the average for more than two hours, it alerts the farmer through a mobile application or browser-based dashboard. Hence, farmers get to know that it is time to inseminate the cow. The system, which can tell the exact location of a subscriber’s cow within a radius of 5-15 km, sends alerts not just to the farmer, but others like a doctor or family member as well,” Modi said. As many as 1,500 cows located in the 5-15 km range can be connected to a single gateway.
‘Cow Collar’ collects all the data related to a cow and sends it to a gateway named ‘RoLa Gateway’, which, in turn, passes on the data received from all the collar devices to the cloud. The data is processed in the cloud and an alert is sent to the farm owner.
While the collar costs ₹3,500 each, the gate is priced at ₹80,000. “So, if farmers of a village come together and decide to install it, we can bring down the price of the gateway to even zero,” said Modi. The company also offers it to farmers on the model of a subscription, which will cost them around ₹5-10 per day.
The collar device is powered by a battery that needs to be replaced at a gap of 5-6 years. “Though the life of the device is incredibly long,” he said.
IDMC Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), also plans to introduce disease detection and diet recommendation plans into the system.
“Over time, as we collect health data and activity logs, we plan to develop an algorithm to alert for the possibility of certain diseases,” the official concluded.
