
Sensors and AI are finding their way into the barnyard - prostoalex
https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2019/09/12/sensors-and-ai-are-finding-their-way-into-the-barnyard
======
rapjr9
I worked on electronically herding cows 10+ years ago and talked with Temple
Grandin about it. She thought the idea of relying on sensors alone to monitor
animal health was a bad idea. Unless the sensors can detect every possible
disease and problem that a rancher or vet can detect in person, the risk is
that some animal problems will go unnoticed by the sensors and the animals
will suffer. Also the ranchers may not care about that if it reduces costs and
profits remain the same, so using sensors could cost lots of animal misery.

The same is true of using sensors to monitor the health of people. Many ideas
that the food industry has used to engineer foods for people have come from
the cattle industry (who have a big interest in stuffing more food into cows)
so testing sensors on cows may be a first step towards using them on people.

------
boltzmannbrain
non-paywall: [https://archive.vn/145aA](https://archive.vn/145aA)

Also note this article is from 2019.

------
fennecfoxen
> An Austrian firm called smaxtec has developed a sensor that can be
> swallowed. It lodges inside the reticulum, one of a cow’s four stomachs, and
> stays there for the rest of the animal’s life, monitoring body temperature,
> movement and stomach acidity, and uploading the results when the cow is near
> a wireless detector.

(insert "scream" emoji here)

~~~
evan_
Dairy farmers already feed cattle a large magnet to catch any pieces of metal
that they might eat in the field so it doesn't travel through their
intestines. No use getting squeamish about this kind of stuff, it's just how
the sausage is made (well, milk and cheese).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_disease)

~~~
noad
There is so much pollution in the fields we have to feed the cows magnets to
get it out. That is the funniest thing I've read all day.

~~~
anewdirection
Mostly fence nails and 100 year old remneants. Lots of ferric metal can occur
naturally and is no better. Its not like garbage or trash as you are so
inelequently suggesting. Cows eat nearly anything, so if you take the
responsibility for their well-being by raising them, you have to plan
accordingly.

~~~
noad
Yeah all the naturally occuring ferric metal in Kansas sure is a plague upon
our lands. So much natural ferric material just laying around, I'm getting
sick of it all!

Let's bring that up instead of talking about the massive amounts of pollution
above and below ground. Hilarious.

