Rounding Up Data

How does a single cow stand out in the herd when there are almost 95 million head of cattle in the U.S.? HerdDogg, an IoT hardware company based in Ashland, Oregon, aims to answer that question.

HerdDogg is helping ranchers across the country remotely track the activity and health of each animal in their herd using smart ear tags.

The HerdDogg solution consists of electronic ear tags (Doggtags), a mobile tag reader (DoggBone) and a cloud-based service to read collected data on an app from either a phone or computer.  The Doggtags monitor the animal’s activity and body temperature, as well as other key metrics using sophisticated sensors. Each tag has a two-year battery life.  

The DoggBone reader is a lightweight, passive reader that collects data from multiple ear tags within a 30-foot to 40-foot radius and sends it to the cloud.  Ranchers access the data from anywhere via an app that works on a smartphone or a computer.

The DoggBone can be stored at the water trough, carried in a worker’s pocket, mounted on a drone or even be worn by a cattle dog.  It stores data until it has access to a cellular or wifi network, at which point the data is uploaded to the cloud where it can be read from the app.

Data gathered from the herd can be used to help identify illness, breeding cycles, calving, and general animal behavior like eating, sleeping, drinking, and grazing.  Over time, as more data is collected, the app can help ranchers make informed herd management decisions and identify abnormal behavior early on, reducing risk and saving time and money.