7 March, 2021
On a lush, green patch of rolling farmland in Australia’s Queensland, cows are quietly grazinga scene that is replicated around the world.
A closer inspection, however, would reveal that these particular bovines are a bit more high-tech than normal.
Behind one ear, each carries a device roughly the size of a matchbox - a tamper-proof, solar-powered, satellite-connected smart “tag” that is constantly transmitting real-time data back to the farmer.
“It tells us where the animal is with GPS, and also what condition the animal is in,” explains David Smith, the chief executive of Ceres Tag, the Brisbane-based firm behind the technology.