Aussie sheep breeders will soon receive better high tech support as the widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology is set to revolutionise the industry and help Australian commercial sheep producers.
The Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC) and the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre (D2D CRC) have agreed to collaborate in developing new data-based products to make sheep management easier and achieve better outcomes in terms of sheep well-being and productivity. The two CRCs aim to provide big data solutions for the livestock sector.
“The app will allow sheep producers to anticipate risks that might compromise the well-being of their sheep flocks using climatic data produced by the Bureau of Meteorology in combination with a number of bio-physical models and a range of data science technologies based around machine learning. The second aspect deals with livestock data, such as liveweight, condition score, and pregnancy scanning. It also includes information about the genetic background of a flock. The third component is the assessment of risk as a combination of livestock resilience and environmental factors,”
Sheep CRC Chief Executive James Rowe
This innovative data platform has the ability to automatically update significant predictions of environmental risks and animal resilience and susceptibility in real-time without the need for labour-intensive inputs from sheep producers.
It is an IoT connected technology that utilises an automatic feed of climate data from the Bureau of Meteorology and updates models of soil moisture, feed budgets, parasite risks, and extreme weather on a daily basis.
“At the moment, what farmers use to make their decisions is really their gut feeling. We are now taking D2D CRC’s research and data skills from our main focus area – on defense and national security – and applying that to other sectors and industries. The application of ICT technologies to agriculture is a significant game changer and this is a prime example,”
-Sanjay Mazumdar, Chief Executive of the D2D CRC.
“We are entering a period of unprecedented potential for big data applications to transform productivity in many industries and the collaboration between the D2D and Sheep CRCs provides a unique and timely opportunity for the Australian sheep industry,”
-Prof Rowe
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