Digital Angel, a technology company in the field of animal identification and emergency identification solutions, announced its Destron Fearing unit's rTag Dynamic system has been successfully demonstrated by Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (AARD) to a group of leading Canadian livestock producers. As an agency of the Alberta provincial government, AARD's stated mission is to promote prosperity for Alberta through a strong, competitive, sustainable agriculture and food industry.
Digital Angel, a technology company in the field of animal identification and emergency identification solutions, announced its Destron Fearing unit's rTag Dynamic system has been successfully demonstrated by Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (AARD) to a group of leading Canadian livestock producers. As an agency of the Alberta provincial government, AARD's stated mission is to promote prosperity for Alberta through a strong, competitive, sustainable agriculture and food industry.
Bradley Smith, AARD Livestock Technology Specialist said, “We have been very impressed with the rTag system, which delivered more in service and capability than we first expected. The rTags can be read all at once in a feedlot pen or individually. Also, the capability of recording animal movement adds a whole new dimension to livestock management and provides opportunities to do research and development on animal behavior.”
Joseph Grillo, CEO of Digital Angel, said, “We are pleased to participate with the Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development team in the demonstration of this innovative system. They have done an exemplary job of testing the system's capabilities in the challenging environment of livestock production operations.”
The rTag Dynamic system is a flexible and robust system that allows the automatic collection of animal events at specific sites. The system is designed to track animal behavior and provide details of how often an animal is feeding and drinking. Through the use of long-range (150 feet) solar powered readers, the animal's identification number can be associated with a particular activity or location. Proximity sensors are able to provide a location within a few feet, thereby providing information when the animal is at the water trough or at the feed bunk. Data is communicated wirelessly through the internet or directly to a PC, making the system suitable for the rugged environment usually associated with livestock operations.
The rTag Dynamic has the capacity to read multiple animals at the same time, providing real-time data for all the animals in range. It can identify all individual animals in a full truckload of cattle from as far away as 100 feet, in 5 seconds or less, allowing for easy tracking of the transport of animals in and out of a location. Solar-powered proximity sensors keep both cost and ease of installation to a minimum. With a battery life of over two years, the rTag is expected to be equivalent in price to existing short-range RFID eartags in use today.
The rTag Dynamic is ideal for auction markets, feedlots, calf ranches or any operation that has a need to track large herds of animals. The system can be readily incorporated into any current software or database management system, providing efficiencies in the monitoring and tracking of animals throughout the operation. The system is also complementary with RFID animal standards ISO11784 and ISO117785.