Zoetis to help new acquisition Smartbow take precision livestock farming tech global

Dont think this article has been posted previously, but well worth a read.  It details the planned roll-out of the Smartbow technology (by Zoetis) to other parts of Europe, US & Canada.  Also interesting to note is the advantage of the Smartbow technology over competitors in the field.

This bodes well for Nanotron moving forward.  

https://animalpharm.agribusinessintelligence.informa.com/AP014930/Zoetis-to-help-new-acquisition-Smartbow-take-precision-livestock-farming-tech-global?vid=Agri&processId=f2ed4246-d629-4362-8626-c74f92c182b0

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21-Nov-2018

Zoetis will provide a greater global stage for its new Smartbow precision livestock farming technology in 2019.

Earlier this summer, the firm purchased Smartbow – a young Austrian company that has developed a monitoring system for dairy cows. The system uses electronic ear tags to collect real-time data and analytics from individual animals. This includes monitoring for reproductive data, rumination behaviour, animal locations, signs of stress and early detection of diseases.

The technology is designed to pave the way for more individualised treatment and care of dairy cows through artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Smartbow is currently used on 300 farms (60,000 cows) in around 13 European countries. However, 2019 will see Zoetis provide more infrastructure to the Smartbow operations as it goes global. Next year, Zoetis will launch the technology in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the US and Canada – nations with an established indoor dairy farm sector. 

Mega-trend in modern livestock farming

Zoetis president of international operations Rob Kelly said the acquisition of Smartbow plays into the animal health industry's increasing move towards disease detection and prevention with modern technologies."You look at how the agricultural industry has used data in the last 10-15 years to allow farmers to make operational and management decisions on a day-to-day basis," he said at the recent EuroTier event in Hanover, Germany. "This is a big part of what John Deere, Monsanto and others are doing. We are now seeing that move into the animal health sector as well.

"Andreas Tschuor – director of precision livestock farming, commercial development and lifecycle innovation – stated: "The cow monitoring system helps farmers detect disease earlier, allowing them to involve veterinarians more quickly and accurately. The ability to identify health issues in animals at an early stage results in faster recovery and improved overall well-being."

Precision livestock farming is fast becoming an even more important segment of animal health with farmers and veterinarians seeking new solutions to improve the health and productivity of their herds while increasing the profitability of their businesses.

Zoetis is on the leading edge in this space."Using precision livestock farming to increase productivity and meet demand is becoming a mega-trend, Dr Tschuor told Animal Pharm. He said there are a steady stream of start-ups entering the precision livestock farming space.

So why did Zoetis select Smartbow to acquire? Mr Kelly explained: "Smartbow is the most advanced digital cow monitoring system. This is one of the only systems that can monitor animals on an individual basis. Compared to a lot of competitor products, it does not benchmark animals against an industry average but treats the animal as an individual. That means the information that is created within the system is highly accurate."

Three areas of focus

The Smartbow system integrates radio frequency identification tags and data analytics to enable rumination monitoring, heat detection and real-time localisation for adult dairy cattle housed indoors.

Dr Tschuor said: "We monitor health by looking at individual cow rumination, which is the most sensitive parameter when it comes to animal health. No physiological parameter changes earlier than rumination."If a cow has mastitis, the clinical signs are a swollen udder, inflammation, fever and changes in milk quality. But the first thing that changes in the animal is actually rumination."

Smartbow can monitor rumination activity with an accuracy of 97-99%, said Dr Tschuor. The technology can also detect cases of heat with a reliability of 97%. This compares extremely favourably with visual detection rates. Dr Tschuor said the average farmer in Europe can detect around 50-60% of cows on heat. This rate is low because most of the signs of heat occur at night.

Benefits over competitor tech

While there are a host of precision livestock farming technologies out there, Smartbow's advantages are its ability to deliver real-time information and its artificial intelligence.

Dr Tschuor said other systems store the data and the information must be accessed, whereas the Smartbow system is continuously generating and sending data to the user.

Mr Kelly said: "There are all different competitors in this space. The one that really stood out for me is this technology because all the other technologies compare animals to averages. We know that no two animals are the same but what this technology is doing is its learning about an individual animal."It only takes three or four days for the technology to train itself on an individual animal. That is what gives it the accuracy. Combine that with the real-time element and that's the real differentiator."

Additionally, Smartbow's ear tags have a battery life of three or four years before they need to be replaced. The batteries of other ear tags cannot be replaced and therefore need more maintenance.

Laurent Monnerat – Zoetis' senior vice president for Germany, central and eastern Europe – said the Smartbow system has been adopted across various sizes of farms with the technology installed in family-owned, mid-sized and industrial operations.He said more than 10,000 cows are currently connected to the Smartbow technology in Germany.

In fact, Zoetis is using Germany as a testing ground for the Smartbow business and pricing models, before rolling the technology to other markets.Currently, farms pay an upfront fee for the hardware. This is followed by a yearly service fee per cow.