eWeightSmart - A Smart Approach to Beef Production Management

Abstract

The use of technologies related to the Internet of Things or Cloud Computing are presently becoming common in different activity sectors. The use of these concepts has allowed to create solutions to solve several social problems, optimizing some of the day-to-day tasks. The agricultural sector is no exception, where increasingly, “smart” solutions begin to emerge in an attempt to reduce the complexity of some tasks or, on a more conceptual level, to make it possible to exploit new markets. Beef production, an agricultural sub-sector, is in many world regions, the main source of income, however, this sub-sector is not always managed in the most optimized way. Cattle body weight management is an important aspect of this sub-sector, providing precious measures for food, health care, breeding and stock selection. For the farmers, the weight measurement when the animal is alive, allows a better commercialization of it, making possible a better management of feeding expenses, reducing waste. It’s therefore necessary to find solutions to ensure a balance between beef production and the associated costs. This paper illustrates an approach to control the evolution of bovine animal’s weight by means of automatic weighing and control of the food amount that is made available to each animal. Using a set of sensors, a mobile platform and using NB-IoT, a communication network, it was possible to devise an approach that can reduce costs in the sector and also enable the exploitation of new business models.