Challenges of application of ICT in cattle management: Remote management system for cattle grazing in mountainous areas of Japan using a smartphone

Abstract

We created an information and communication technology system to monitor the feeding of grazing cattle, comprising the following elements: (1) actuators, including an audio player, feeder, and stanchion (an equipment for locking cattle neck during feeding); (2) wireless nodes with Wi-Fi connectivity to control the actuators; (3) Internet protocol (IP)-addressed cameras with Wi-Fi connectivity; (4) a wireless access point enabling the wireless nodes and IP cameras to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi; and (5) a Web server that communicates with the wireless nodes and delivers a control graphical user interface for use by farmers. Farmers can call cattle towards an IP camera and feed them by using a smartphone without being physically present on the farm. Next, we constructed a received signal strength-based location system for grazing cattle. This included monitoring the location of cattle on pastures in mountainous areas, where issues to be considered included low energy consumption for battery operation and radio propagation degradation due to the undulating topography of the pastures. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, an experimental study was conducted in a pasture with an area of 2 km2. We also provided a means to view the locality on a smartphone by creating an application that connects to this system. In this study, we created two systems controllable via a smartphone, one system to call cattle and the other to monitor their locations. These systems could be very useful to farmers in controlling and monitoring cattle grazing.