Cow breeding given a power-up with game console technology

A Scottish technology company has created a groundbreaking new cattle breeding product using the same technology found in popular games consoles.

Embedded Technology Solutions (ETS), based in Glasgow, invented the ’Silent Herdsman’ technology using a ’three-axis accelerometer’; the movement-detection hardware found in consumer consoles like the Nintendo Wii.

The technology, a collar which sits around the neck of cows, works by monitoring the animals’ movement. Cows move around more when they are in heat and ready for breeding.

To save battery life, the collars remain dormant until they detect a change in the animals’ movement patterns; at which point a signal is sent to a computer to alert the farmer. The signals can also be picked up via mobile apps on smartphones to allow farmers to pick up alerts while working outside on the farm.

The Silent Herdsman can increase pregnancy success rates from 10 per cent to more than 30 per cent, boosting a farm’s efficiency by removing the need to rely on traditional fertility detection methods.

Professor Ivan Andonovic, who co-founded ETS, said the technology freed up farmers’ time, enabling them to run more efficient and profitable farms.

He said: ’We’ve installed 70 of these already on farms around the UK and we’ve received feedback from farmers telling us it’s freeing up their time to complete other tasks on the farm and making it a much easier job to breed cattle.’

The ETS product can also alert farmers to animals which are unwell. The three-axis accelerometer can monitor a cow’s head position and determine if there are any unusual eating patterns. The team is now working on a way to detect specific illnesses.

The Silent Herdsman will be demonstrated at a technology showcase being held in Edinburgh next month by Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), which will bring together the best of Scottish research and technology and leading-edge collaboration projects.

Dr Tony Waterhouse, head of SAC Beef Research Centre, believes that new technology advances in Scotland were paving the way for major gains in farming efficiency.

He said: ’A lot of the big improvements in things like efficiency, profitability, animal health, and sustainability will come from better agriculture management and use of smart technology. The new technology being showcased at this event will provide farmers with the tools to improve their businesses.

’It’s like driving a car ’ if you’re looking to get the most out of your tank a lot depends on how you drive it. Combined with traditional good husbandry, the research and technology coming out of Scotland at the moment could realistically help farms increase efficiency by 20 or 30 per cent.’

SAC is pioneering methane measurement in livestock, which is thought to represent much of the 12 per cent of the Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions coming directly from agriculture. The new SAC ’GreenCow’ facility and associated respirometer technology will also be on display at the show at their research centre near Edinburgh on August 4. The facility, the largest of its kind in the UK, measures the methane emissions of individual housed cattle to enable researchers to find ways of making livestock systems and feeding more environmentally sustainable.

At the other end of the spectrum, hand held laser methane detection gun, which could be used on-farm by individual farmers, will also be on display.

Scottish life sciences company Ingenza, which is currently working with leading ruminant researcher Professor John Wallace (Rowett Institute, Aberdeen), will be represented at the show. The collaboration between Ingenza and Prof Wallace is examining how enzymes in the stomachs of cattle and other ruminants ’ animals which chew the cud ’ could be used industrially to break down the tough internal structures of plant and tree matter to create sustainable alternatives to petrochemical derived products such as fuel and commodity chemicals.

The event is being jointly organised by SAC, and the Rumens and Ruminants Interest Group, part of the Scottish Government and Technology Strategy Boardfunded Biosciences Knowledge Transfer Network, based at the world-renowned Roslin Institute near Edinburgh.

Dr David Telford, knowledge transfer manager at the Biosciences KTN, said: ’There’s an enormous amount of incredible research and technology coming out of Scotland at the moment, and events like this are absolutely crucial in making sure farmers know what’s being done and are able to benefit from it.

’The sharing of ideas and new discoveries across research facilities and commercial organisations is providing an additional boost to innovation in Scotland. Agriculture is an important part of the Scottish economy, and the knock-on effects of what is being done here will have positive benefits for other industry sectors too.’