Focus Area: Animal & Herd
Mar 03 2024
The ‘Animal & Herd’ focus area features technology solutions that help graziers manage the health and welfare of their animals, understand and advance their genetics and breeding systems, and improve grazing practices.
Technology has a crucial role to play in modernising animal and herd management. Using the right agtech solution to monitor and control the movement and location of herds can help farmers improve efficiency, productivity, and animal welfare outcomes.
Solutions such as ear tags, smart fencing, remote monitoring tools, and computer software can provide a wide range of useful metrics.
Those metrics can be used to:
- Track animal fertility during breeding periods
- Gain insight into feeding patterns, consumption and efficiency per animal
- Track the health status of each individual beast
- Track animal weight and productivity
- Prove sustainability credentials
- Count, locate and visualise your herd
- Instantly alert you to theft and break outs
Animal Health & Welfare
Biosecurity, chemical-resistant diseases and parasites present constant challenges for Australia’s livestock sector.
AgTech solutions are rapidly changing how producers prevent, diagnose, treat and eradicate parasites and diseases.
Digital tools that facilitate prevention and early diagnosis greatly reduce the risk of occurrence and augment traditional herd-wide monitoring and treatments.
Developers of animal monitoring and identification tools such as GPS/accelerometer ear tags, implantable devices and virtual fencing, all list animal health and welfare among their core motivators.
If or when animals are diagnosed with symptoms of predation, parasites or disease, a wide range of new application-based decision tools can help take the guesswork out of treatments and dosages.
In addition, herd management tools as described above can offer improved outcomes for protection, through quarantining or informing whole farm management plans.
Genetics & Breeding
AgTech Finder is a free and easy to use resource that takes the guesswork out of all technology decisions. Such decisions can include the complex processes that drive genetic improvement.
Whether your priority is increased production, parasite and disease resistance, fertility, resilience to climate stresses or all the above, there are a wide variety of AgTech solutions available that can help you achieve your goal.
AgTech for genetics and breeding purposes offers producers greater confidence in the animals they breed, knowing that future generations of livestock and poultry will be highly productive, resilient, healthy, and well-adapted to the changing climate.
Various technologies have already resulted in significant economic gains in beef, lamb, wool, milk, pork, egg, and chicken production across Australia. Using these innovations, producers of livestock and poultry can:
Reduce mortality rates in hatchlings and livestock.
Track desirable traits such as parasite and disease resistance and climate resilience at a herd level, via wearable and implantable animal tags and performance monitoring tools.
Calculate Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) using data from herd-based management systems and remote surveillance.
Predict and influence next generation traits using genomics.
Identify the best times to inseminate by monitoring heat and ovulation.
Increase embryo fertilisation rates with improved equipment and storage for artificial insemination or embryo transfer.
A Good Place to Start
Choosing the right solution (or a combination thereof) for your business will depend on the size and scale of your operations, your production methods, connectivity, existing infrastructure, and data integration.
It’s important you consider these factors when deciding what technology to purchase. While many agtech companies can provide this support, there are also independent websites and advice that can assist. AgTech Finder is an independent resource you can trust.
If finding the time to conduct this research is difficult, then try searching the ‘Help & Advice’ section of our website. There are 36 podcast episodes to listen to that talk through the benefits of adopting agtech, with each episode focusing on a particular piece of technology.
If you already have an idea of what you need, visit our Product Directory and filter your search by focus area and solution type. Click the star on the product image to add it to the comparison tool. This will allow you to compare product features side-by-side.
If you don’t know where to begin, start by browsing our wide variety of resources in the If you can’t find the advice you’re looking for, get in touch with us and we’ll work on developing a resource that helps you, and other farmers in the same predicament.
Relevant Help & Advice:
Sep 09 2024
Ep 34: Talking Artificial Intelligence with InFarm
In this episode we hear how artificial intelligence is being applied to weed detection and cattle identification.
Read MoreAug 26 2024
Ep 32: Talking Livestock Data Analytics
This episode of the AgTech Finder podcast asks: what do you do with all your livestock data once you've collected it?
Read MoreJul 15 2024
Ep 26: Virtual Fencing in Dairy with Halter
This episode of the AgTech Finder podcast explores virtual fencing and monitoring technology that could be transformative for the dairy industry.
Read MoreApr 29 2024
Ep 25: Livestock Diagnostics with AgScent
EPISODE 25: We’re joined by AgScent founder Bronwyn Darlington to tell us about their two products. The first, AgScent Breath, is a device that can breathalyse a cow to see if it is pregnant or…
Read MoreOct 03 2023
Ep 13: Livestock Management with Optiweigh
EPISODE 13: This week host Olivia Calver explores livestock management technology found in the paddock, the yards or the shearing shed. We’re joined once again by South Australian sheep and cattle farmer…
Read MoreSep 18 2023
Ep 11: Animal Health & Nutrition with ProAgni
EPISODE 11: In this week’s episode our host Olivia Calver explores the technology involved in animal health and nutrition, from the latest probiotics to on-farm diagnostic lab kits. We speak to professor…
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Read MoreList your company on AgTech Finder.
AgTech Finder helps Australian Farmers and producers find the product that’s right for them.
Register now to be a part of the community, get access to a national platform and start gaining insights to improve your products.