Wireless Sensor Networks in Agriculture: Cattle Monitoring for Farming Industries

Abstract

This paper investigates an adaptation of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to cattle monitoring application. The proposed solution facilitates a desired requirement of continuously assessing the condition of individual animal, aggregating and reporting these data to the farm manager. There are several existing approaches to animal monitoring, from using a store and forward mechanisms to employing a GSM technique. These approaches for monitoring livestock health can only provide sporadic information and introduce a considerable cost in staffing and physical hardware. The core of this study is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks by using alternative low cost, low power consumption sensor nodes, which are capable of providing real-time communications at a reasonable hardware cost. In this paper, the hardware and software have been carefully designed to provide early indication of possible outbreaks while conforming to WSNs' stringent limitations.

Genetic analysis and evaluation of behavioural traits in cattle

“…Also, it is expected that in the future, objective methods of temperament assessment will be applied in practice using the latest technical solutions (Huhtala et al, 2007;Kwong et al, 2009). For example, König et al (2006) suggested that frequency of voluntary entry of dairy cows into an automatic milking system could be used to estimate breeding value for animal temperament.…”

Semi-automated double sided livestock (SADSL) mix feeder

“…Other than that, the old style "Bunk Feeders" [8][9][10] have numerous limitations such as over consumption, waste, and exposure to the elements as well as wildlife consumption. Although, the solution for monitoring and control the cattle farm operation and environmental condition available [11][12][13][14][15][16] but the existing are still lacking of an automated feeder system. An effient feeding system can produce cattle that are physical and geneticly healthy [17][18][19][20].…”

Cluster-based routing protocol in wireless sensor networks for tracking livestock movements in Mongolian nomadic herding

“…There is a large number of works to develop automated systems for tracking or monitoring livestock using wireless sensor network technology [3], [5][6][7][8]. However, there are some problems in using the existing wireless sensor network-based systems for tracking livestock movements in the Mongolian nomadic herding which is characterized by a large number of livestock and vast pastureland.…”