Agersens makes progress in American agri-tech market

Melbourne agri-tech business, Agersens has increased penetration of its IoT-based eShepherd in the United States signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ohio State University.

The MoU follows similar agreements to trial and implement the cattle husbandry technology with universities which provide agricultural extension services in Idaho and Kansas.

Cattle wear the eShepherd collar, which includes an embedded accelerometer and GPS reader, allowing farmers to remotely monitor location and other data.

Agersens CEO, Ian Reilly said Ohio State University had the expertise to better understand local cattle and dairy markets and determine how best to use eShepherd.

Trials would determine how the ‘virtual fencing’ enabled by eShepherd could be used to move and muster cattle and get the best out of land and livestock.

Reilly said: “eShepherd is set to revolutionise livestock management by unlocking value from the digital transformation of the American beef and dairy industries.

“(It) will make farming more efficient, more manageable and less labour intensive.”

eShepherd hardware and software was licensed from CSIRO and has already received thousands of orders in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and the UK.

Reilly said: “Ohio State will be seeking to add eShepherd to their kit of extension service technologies that can help farmers increase their efficiency and maximise productivity.”

Dr. John Foltz, Chair of the Department of Animal Sciences at Ohio State, said ther virtual fence was an exciting technology.

Foltz said: “It appears to have some very unique capabilities and also generates large amounts of precision livestock data, which will be valuable to our research scientists.”

The ability of the GPS-enabled collars to monitor and move the herd in real-time using mobile technology appealed to Animal Sciences Associate Chair, Dr. Anthony Parker.

Parker said: “The position of the cattle can be observed in real-time.

“The technology has many practical applications for cattle producers in Ohio from avoiding overgrazed areas to moving cattle to ensure an even grazing pressure.”

Picture: Agersens

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