Brazilian study foresees weighing of cattle via cell phone app
A study by the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT) and the Federal Institute of Mato Grosso (IFMT) foresees cattle weighing through a cell phone application.
The project starts to be developed in April this year, with the collection of information on beef cattle properties.
Based on a photo of the animal taken by the application, the tool will allow adjustments to be made to the feeding and medication levels to be administered to the cattle.
The technology will help producers who do not have scales on their properties.
According to IFMT researcher Geovanne Ferreira Rebouças, a multidisciplinary team will develop the research idea and contribute to the so-called “Livestock 4.0”, which seeks to add technological innovation to the area.
“Since my master’s degree, I have been researching the morphometric evaluation of beef cattle, which considers the animal’s forms by metrics and mathematical calculations, but adapted and redirected to the line of using precision animal husbandry and artificial intelligence,” he explains.
“This time, we will study the development of the tool for weighing bovines by image through a cell phone application and with the device’s camera.”
The research also proposes other objectives.
Besides weighing, the application will try to predict other carcass characteristics, such as eye area, loin area, and subcutaneous fat thickness, enabling an advance in cattle breeding.
According to the researcher, in Brazil, a model already predicts weight by image, but it is aimed at collective and confinement systems.
“These models are not available to the common producer, only with his cell phone.”
“There is an application developed in Belgium, but it is not available in Brazil, and it still needs to attach a 3-D camera to the cell phone to work,” says Geovanne.
“Our idea is to develop an app that can weigh only with the conventional two-dimensional camera of the cell phones we have on the market.”
The project coordinator, Joanis Tilemahos Zervoudakis, reinforces the relevance of the production chain in Mato Grosso.
“The context is inserted in applying this technology we propose directly at the tip, in the productive chain.”
“One must consider that Mato Grosso has the largest cattle herd in Brazil, about 31 million.”
Therefore, he highlights that the proposal consequently helps the cattle breeder in nutritional management strategies for better-quality meat.
With information from Revista Oeste
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