Design and Implementation of Livestock Tracking and Logging System at Oakley Farm

Abstract

The goal of this project is to decrease the cost of maintaining a cattle farm. It is estimated that the average annual profit of one head of cattle is only $125, while the cost of purchasing cattle tracking technology is upwards of $300. We are developing technology similar to what is available on the market, but will lower the cost of equipping each head of cattle to $20.

We at the Computer Science Department have designed a network that will span the area of a given farm to transmit data to a server, which will store necessary information on a database. Mineral feeders on the farm will be equipped with a tag reader, a Raspberry Pi 3 to capture and send data, a live-feed camera, and self-sustaining solar power provided by the MET department. Each time a cow uses the feeder, the tag reader will scan the tag and relay data to the Raspberry Pi 3, which will communicate with our server to store necessary information. Users will have access to a website developed by the Computer Science team. The website allows access to information stored in the database, satellite mapping of the farm with cattle tag locations throughout the farm, and live video feed of the mineral feeder. One of our main design objectives is to create a user-friendly environment, and our simplistic website design reflects just that. We believe that this system will be necessary and usable in a wide set of environments across the country.