IoT to beef up livestock

Grameenphone has introduced a digital livestock management solution based on the internet of things (IoT) at a dairy farm in Purbachal.

Digi Cow uses an IoT-enabled smart tag which attaches to a cow's body to continuously record and transmit data such as body temperature and behaviour patterns, said the mobile operator in a press release yesterday.

The data is received on a smartphone app and analysed, allowing the user to monitor the livestock's health, such as ovulation periods, and detect health anomalies.

This ultimately enables preventive measures to be taken as early as two days in advance, helping to stop the animal from catching any disease and spreading it around the farm.

On the other hand, farmers will be able to run better reproductive cycles and reduce mortality risks, increasing productivity and income and making farm management easier.

The software has been developed by Grameenphone's partner company “Verse v”, which imported the smart tags from China.

Introducing the state-of-the-art solution at Masco Dairy Enterprise on Monday, the mobile operator said it was enabling the connectivity and ecosystem.

A top official of the operator said mostly high-value farms can directly avail this service from them while smaller farms can get it through enterprise channels.

Big farms will need to set up a base station costing Tk 28,000.

The hardware for each cow will cost Tk 6,500. After a year, the farm has to start paying Tk 1,800 per month as maintenance change.

Grameenphone says the initial costs can be recovered within a year as farmers would be able to save a lot of money and increase production.

The operator says it has already found positive results running a six-month pilot project with Brac. It says the major challenge was detecting the ovulation periods.

Whenever an ovulation period is missed, the loss translates to Tk 13,000. Moreover, there is no way for early detection of any health anomaly in cows, reads the press release.

The IoT solution was showcased at the dairy farm in presence of representatives of small and medium cattle farms and large dairy product manufacturers.

Hiresh Ranjan Voumik, director general of the Department of Livestock Services, was the chief guest while MA Sabur, group chairman of Masco Group, and Mahmud Hossain, chief business officer of Grameenphone, along with other senior executives were present.