Adoption and Effectiveness Value of RFID Based Digital Recording System for Commercial and Rural Beef Cattle Farming

Abstract

One of the main challenges in livestock sector especially cattle farming in Indonesia which is very crucial is recording system for livestock production that can be valid. A simple way can be a solution for this challenge is used of RFID based digital recording system. This system is utilizing microchips in the RFID tags that are attached to each cattle, in addition to avoiding human error both in counting and recording, also eliminating the possibility of double data, because every single RFID Tag has a Unique-ID as the individual identity for each cattle. RFID based digital recording system was tried by comparing commercial beef cattle farming (CF) and rural beef cattle farming (RF) at Lampung province of Indonesia. Cattle population that used for this research are 1.473 heads for CF and 992 heads for RF. The data that recorded is ear-tag number, breed, sex, body weight, and paddock with a remark when needed. The parameters compared of both farming are number of cattle that can be recorded per day and time required to record per head of cattle (second). Effectiveness value of this system on rural farming was learned through by comparing for each trial for first trial to fourteenth trials of time required to record per cattle. Data was analyzed by t-student test method. CF more adaptive and effective than RF for RFID based digital recording system. Number of cattle that can be recorded per day by CF was significantly higher (199+100,70) than RF (63+33,51). Time required to record per head of cattle by CF was significantly shorter (29,85+12,37) than RF (68,95+30,76). Time required to record per cattle was significantly reduce at Trial (29.867). The last trial time required to record per cattle of RF was equal with CF. RFID based digital recording system for livestock was adaptable and effective for both of commercial beef cattle farming and rural beef cattle farming.