Project: Wireless Livestock Tracking System
The price of livestock is on the rise. Demand in emerging markets has increased the price of cattle and pigs by over 100% in the past decade. Today's farming industry is showing a growing activity in free -range grazing and farming due to ethical, health and regulation reasons as well as rising feed costs. Outdoors and free-range animals produce a higher grade meat and require much less medication, in particular antibiotics. There is a growing market for this kind of products and overall for organic products. _x000D__x000D_Today, many farms are using RFID tags, pinned to the animal’s ears to identify the animal, track medical history and inoculations and even manage feeding. Unfortunately, these devices work at very short range and provide little to no value once animals leave the pen and roam the free-range._x000D__x000D_WILT (Wireless Livestock Tracking) is a system combining an innovative new monitoring device called a "Sentinel Unit" along with traditional RIFD tags already in use, to track the location, behavior and health of free-range herd animals such as pigs, sheep and cattle. Annex Slide 1 provides a system overview. WILT is designed to track:_x000D__x000D_• Animal location_x000D_• Movement patterns_x000D_• Sleep/Rest patterns_x000D_• Animal Temperature_x000D_• Interaction with other animals in and outside the herd_x000D__x000D_The information is uploaded to a cloud-monitoring software in real-time and is analyzed tracking each animal's activity. By combining analysis of multiple indicators, WILT's algorithms produce advanced health profiles and recommendations with higher accuracy and fewer false alerts than any current product. _x000D__x000D_WILT will detect the earliest indicators of disease to help farmers reduce the crippling losses of animals and profit caused by spread of disease. WILT will reduce the costs and regulatory problems related to mass use of antibiotics, promoting a more judicious use. WILT will also provide warnings of interaction of herd animals with wild animals and runaways which often spread disease from one farm to the next. Annex Slide 11 shows how WILT can detect early symptoms of disease._x000D__x000D_Additionally WILT helps farmers combat the rising problem of animal theft related to the increased price of livestock. _x000D__x000D_Lastly, WILT will provide overall wellness reports helping farmers determine if their animals are walking, eating and resting the appropriate amounts to produce maximum weight gain and the highest quality meat. Moreover, this can contribute to the transparency of the system delivering quality information to the customer about the way those animals are produced_x000D__x000D_WILT will provide two major advantages of existing solutions:_x000D_Cost efficiency – WILT hardware costs 90% less than existing wireless tracking solutions designs for open range. This efficiency is achieved through innovative system design and wireless technology. See Annex Slide 10._x000D__x000D_In depth analytics – Unlike existing solutions, WILT provides advanced health data derived from interpolation of several biological and known physiological patterns of each animal type. WILT is able to predict onset of disease even before the animal displays outward symptoms. By predicting disease and providing real-time alerts WILT helps cut response time and spread of the disease._x000D__x000D_WILT is the product of cooperation between a group of technology companies from different disciplines:_x000D_PigCHAMP Pro Europa SL – a leading developer of pig farm management and veterinary analytics_x000D_Infodraw Ltd. – a technology company developing wireless tracking and monitoring solutions_x000D_Meytar R&D Ltd. – a company specialized in developing medical and advanced product engineering_x000D__x000D_Development will be supported by Animal Nutrition and Welfare Service (SNIBA), part of the Faculty of Veterinary of Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona who specialize in the feeding and activity pattern of poultry, pigs and cattle. SNIBA is contracted by PigCHAMP to assist in the development of the behavior tracking and health recommendations for pig and cattle._x000D__x000D_The program is being developed in association with Joselito, one of the top ham producers in the world made exclusively from free-range pigs. Joselito operates over 100 open range pig farms (both self owned and independent small producers associated with Joselito). Joselito will assist in the development and testing of WILT, will serve as its test case and will purchase the system for its growers._x000D__x000D_The program is endorsed by ANPROGAPOR (national association of pigs producers) and ASOPROVAC (cattle producers) and FEAGAS (selected breeds) who represent nearly all the growers in Spain._x000D__x000D_The development of WILT will last 24 months and cost approx. €2.3M. Sales of WILT are expected to exceed €30M in the first five years of deployment.
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Acronym
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WILT
(Reference Number: 8228)
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Duration
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01/08/2013 - 30/04/2016
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Project Topic
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WILT (Wireless Livestock Tracking) is a system combining innovative new hardware along with traditional RIFD tags already in use to track the location, behavior and health of free-range herd animals such as pigs, sheep and cattle.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 10
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Project partner
