There's Now A Fitness Tracker Only For Cows, Allowing You To Track Their Health & GPS Location

Humans wear fitness trackers to monitor their daily health and exercise routines. But now Australia is suggesting putting similar trackers on animals.

No, not people's pet dogs or cats. They want to use them to track the health of their cows and other cattle.

The Ceres Tag - Images courtesy CSIRO

Researchers at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organ) in Australia have teamed up with agricultural startup Ceres Tag to develop a new wearable gadget for the country's livestock. It's similar to the chip the Karnataka government recently implanted in many cows, but it seems to vastly outstrip its Indian counterpart in capabilities.

What can the cow fitness tracker do?

The tracker is implanted into the cow's ear, and is designed to function as is for the animal's lifespan. It obviously has basic sensing potential, allowing cattle ranchers to monitor the health of their animals. It also goes beyond, able to alert the owner to a cow making odd movements, thanks to the accelerometers on board. This could let the cattle owner know his cow might be sick, in pain, or giving birth.

Moreover, the tracker has GPS capability, allowing a farmer to track the exact location of individual cows thanks to IoT technology. This, Ceres Tag CEO David Smith says, could improve grazing management and help locate lost and stolen cows.

Ceres Tag CEO David Smith

So far, the tag has been implanted in 100 cows at a CSIRO research station, and the test results have been promising. Unfortunately, there's been no mention of how much these tags cost to manufacture. If the can be economically made and maintained, perhaps India's livestock farmers could also benefit from this technology.