Israeli cows to get their own biometric ID cards

New facial recognition and biometric system, similar to those used for passports, to be used for Israeli cattle to track their needs and identify animals in distress.

By TPS

A new facial recognition and biometric system – like those used on people – is coming into use in various dairy farms in Israel, but unlike its purpose in humans, in cows it will be used to identify if the animal is in distress.

The data, new studies and a lot of information about the industry will be presented at the annual cattle and sheep science conference, which is taking place this week.

The conference was organized by the Department of Cattle and the Department of Sheep in the Training and Professional Service (SHAM) in the Ministry of Agriculture in cooperation with the Department of Cattle and Sheep Research in the Directorate of Agricultural Research

Real-time monitoring of the cows in the barn was created out of the need to monitor and document the feeding times and location of each individual cow.

These data can contain insights into the well-being of cows, prediction of distress situations, different eating behaviors, estimates of food consumption and more.

Another of the advantages of the state-of-the-art system is that all of the  operations can be controlled remotely – that is, without any physical device on the cow itself, and in fact without its knowledge at all, further increase the cow’s overall wellbeing.