Cattle producers embracing wireless

Even cows are going wireless. Agricultural technology company TekVet is using wireless radio frequency identification technology to monitor the health of cattle to ensure the safety of beef and dairy products.

The live tracking technology is the first of its kind in which an RFID sensor inserted into an animal's ear relays its body temperature, location and more to a series of wireless receiving stations from a range of 300 feet to 500 feet away. The collected data of millions of cows at a time are then transmitted to TekVet's data center of IBM servers via a private satellite network. TekVet said the system that monitors individual cattle for infections can help dairy and beef producers treat illnesses earlier and segregate sick animals from the healthy. The company is deploying the technology mainly in major beef-producing markets in Asia and Latin America.