Livestock Tracking Research Articles

Does the Introduction of RFID Technology Improve Livestock Subsidy Management?

While the expected benefits and challenges of RFID technology have been well studied in the manufacturing and service sectors at the private organization level, little understanding exists of these two issues when exploring RFID adoption in the agricultural field and at the public organizational level. Previous tracking programs in Kuwait have been unsuccessful in reducing illegal activities that lead to fraud and the wasting of public money in animal feed programs. To alleviate these problems, an RFID program, supported by information systems, was designed to help monitor and control feed distribution and animal tracking. Unlike previous studies, this case describes the application of RFID for the tracking and monitoring of livestock by the Kuwait Public Authority of Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources. It reviewed the subsidy process before and after RFID adoption and found a large reduction in the actual number of animals claimed after RFID adoption, which reduced fraud and increased animal accountability.

Global navigation satellite system livestock tracking: system development and data interpretation

The use of global satellite navigation system tracking as a research tool for monitoring livestock activity is increasing. Commercial systems are being developed for the livestock industry. This paper reports on the development of a low-cost, store-on-board Global Positioning System collar suitable for large-scale deployment in livestock herds. A robust collar design that avoids the necessity of external cables has been designed and was tested on beef cattle in western New South Wales. Configured for alternating wake and sleep modes to conserve battery life, the collars obtained a positional fix on 99.9% of attempts. Numerous alternatives for presenting extracted data, based on average diurnal activity, mean daily velocity, Livestock Residence Index and dry sheep equivalent maps are introduced and discussed.

Returning them back to the wild: Movement patterns of repatriated Egyptian Tortoises, Testudo kleinmanni Lortet, 1883 (Sauropsida: Testudinidae)

This paper reports the movement patterns of two hard released, repatriated Egyptian Tortoises, Testudo kleinmanni, into Omayed Protectorate, Egypt. Upon release, both tortoises immediately dispersed away from the release point. The maximum dispersal distances from the release site were 1455 m and 1131 m. These tortoises had exceedingly large activity ranges (mean 72.2 ha) which were roughly 10 times the size recorded for other T. kleinmanni populations. There was also some spatial overlap and potential competition with livestock for vegetation, as 35 % of tortoise relocations were found within 2 m of livestock tracks. We suggest that any future tortoise repatriations into Omayed Protectorate should consider methods such as soft releases that could potentially reduce the initial long distance dispersals and the exceptionally large activity ranges