Though early applications of agricultural AI have been focused on row crop and land management, producers are starting to realise the value of AI in animal agriculture.
Specific artificial intelligence applications range from animal identification and weight determination to optimising genetics and feed intake to increase production efficiency and market value.
406 Bovine facial recognition technology for animal identification uses a database of over six million animal images to train its AI algorithms to identify animals quickly and reliably. The technology operates with more that 99% accuracy across all common cattle breeds.
406 Bovine has a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), multi-nation patent pending in the US on animal facial recognition. This patent is the first and only livestock biometrics patent which enables fast, accurate, and permanent animal identification using facial recognition to identify livestock and companion animals.
Cattle and livestock tagging is known to cause issues for ranchers, with tags often getting lost leading to exclusion from many value-added programmes. But 406 Bovine claims its technology helps ranchers maintain individual animal identification and capture the value they have added to their herds.
The company has developed an app to improve management of cattle herds and track information to help ranchers make critical management choices - with the information stored and accessed on individuals smartphones.
Bryan Elliott, Founder and CEO of 406 Bovine, said: "Artificial intelligence in animal production is in its infancy but we have already seen 406 Bovine customers use facial recognition to track programme cattle with added value, replace DNA identification, and streamline data collection."
Elliott continued: "406 Bovine is the only true permanent, individual animal identification option on the market, so our customers use the technology for a wide range of applications, from replacing brands and ear tags to serving as a backup identification method for program-specific cattle. Our customers are continually finding new and innovative ways to apply facial recognition technology to their operations, and we will continue to update the 406 Bovine service to meet their evolving needs."
