"Ceres Tag" Solar powered Geo/Virtual fencing ear tag

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
I find stuff like this fascinating,

Location and temperature reading alone would be a tremendous step forward in livestock management.

Geo fencing would be nice, but I imagine you're looking at a further big increase in equipment costs.

My landlords have mentioned a interest in this for grazing the moor.

I'm trialling boluses which give temperature, activity and pH at the moment, battery life is 4 years and data for all three is collected every 10 minutes. Calving alerts work really well (12 - 24 hrs notice for 85% of cows at calving this year but should improve with time), heat alerts less well at present in suckler cows but apparently more reliable in dairy. 20 alerts this morning showing cows had lower numbers of drinking cycles than previous day, found the trough was live due to a short on the electric fence :eek:.

Lots of potential, I'm told GPS is some way off at the moment though...
 
How much per head is the kit costing you currently? Might be ok for a few cows but thousands of sheep might be a different matter?

Just shy of €80 which includes the device, the collar, and the sim card - not including monthly top ups if necessary.

I'm testing it on sheep because I don't have cattle yet, don't intend to use it on sheep. Plan to sell problem animals and replace with cattle.
 
I'm trialling boluses which give temperature, activity and pH at the moment, battery life is 4 years and data for all three is collected every 10 minutes. Calving alerts work really well (12 - 24 hrs notice for 85% of cows at calving this year but should improve with time), heat alerts less well at present in suckler cows but apparently more reliable in dairy. 20 alerts this morning showing cows had lower numbers of drinking cycles than previous day, found the trough was live due to a short on the electric fence :eek:.

Lots of potential, I'm told GPS is some way off at the moment though...

that's interesting, what price is it likely to be marketed at? if you know
 

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
Depends on the bolus as there are two types, one with pH (very expensive at present) and one without (still expensive but much more realistic). I'm not sure where they are priced at present as they've been put on farm as part of a trial and I'm not going to guess where they may end up being priced either in case I upset anyone!

To be honest though for the calving alerts alone I think they offer real potential, have a look at this.

Screenshot (2).png


The cow was housed and you can see her rumen temperature is fairly stable whilst pregnant at around 40C; the drops are when she drinks. Just before she calves her body temperature drops significantly enough for the bolus to spot it (see the alert labelled fertility). She calved where the second alert is shown (the heart - indicating a rapid rise in activity) which started at 5am (so 15 hrs warning of calving in this case) which is her getting up and cleaning the calf up, mothering it etc. She was penned up with the calf shortly afterwards (so the activity drops again due to the size of the pen) and then turned out to grass with her calf the following day at 10am when the activity spikes again. After that her routine starts to adjust to being at grass.

We're still in the early stages of the trial but later on it may be best if I start a thread on it.
 
Finding prepaid sims that have a half decent life without topping up is getting increasingly difficult over here, sounds like it's similar for you?

I'm not altogether sure tbh. I'm not familiar with the plans etc, bit allergic to delving into them. I did hear tell of plans expiring after a few months, which would suit me possibly as it's just low usage (I presume) data and text for these devices. I also heard of data only options, bit bamboozled tbh.
 
Two things I've discovered today, the Reachfar guy on Facebook is extremely helpful. He spent 4 hours, yes, 4 hours today messaging over FB trying to get this thing to work.

The other thing I've discovered is that mobile phone companies are barstewards, particularly 48months.ie. More unhelpful they couldn't be.

Reached a technical impasse where I need data the PC won't give me to get the App working. So far we got it to a stage where I can text the device and it is meant to tell me where it's located. Off out to test that now (y)
 
Field test two is a limited success, the SMS function which sends me a link to open Google Maps does work and is accurate. Tried it in 6 or 7 locations at ground level in vegetation. Also the directions function on GM works the same with this as any other destination.

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No progress on the app, that'll have to wait, got some shearing to do yet.
 

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
:ROFLMAO:

Network can't unlock my phone, they're contacting the manufacturer (15 working days). Can nothing ever be simple :rolleyes:

So you're having to wait 3 weeks for them to unlock your phone so that you can activate a sim card which is going to be taken straight back out of the phone to go in to the other thingy? You've got the patience of a saint, you really have!
 
So you're having to wait 3 weeks for them to unlock your phone so that you can activate a sim card which is going to be taken straight back out of the phone to go in to the other thingy? You've got the patience of a saint, you really have!

Yes & no, as I have two sim card from two networks - some networks may perform better than others in this endevour. Part of the instructions is to ensure caller ID is open, that it displays it's number. One network won't tell me if this is the case once they heard their sim wasn't going into a handset. So I have to unlock my own handset to check it.

The other sim, the one I tested today works after a fashion. Mind you instead of shearing this evening I went gathering on another hill again where I didn't get a single location from the device. Coverage is bad on that hill anyway but I had expected some hits in certain areas.

Patience, I expect my poor dog doesn't agree :oops:
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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