Tag: cattle
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Detecting disease in beef cattle using ear tag units
A smartphone switches its orientation from portrait to landscape depending on how it’s tilted. A car’s airbags inflate when it senses collision forces. By detecting earth’s vibrations, a computer can measure the magnitude and aftershocks of an earthquake. These technologies are made possible by accelerometers—small, electromechanical devices that measure acceleration. The devices are able to…
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Can big data crunching help feed the world?
The analysis of large volumes of data collected from fields, warehouses, trucks – and even animals’ stomachs – may be key to preventing widespread hunger in the coming decades. The world’s population is projected to grow to 9 billion by 2050, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations believes that food production…
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CowBot: Robot used to round up cows is a hit with farmers
Robots could be used in the future to round up cows on dairy farms, according to researchers. A four-wheeled device, known as Rover, has been tested by a team at Sydney University. It was used to move a herd of cows from a field to a dairy. Researchers were amazed at how easily cows accepted…
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Vaccinating cattle against E.coli O157 could cut human cases by 85%
Vaccinating cattle against the E. coli O157 bacterium could cut the number of human cases of the disease by 85%, according to scientists. The bacteria, which cause severe gastrointestinal illness and even death in humans, are spread by consuming contaminated food and water, or by contact with livestock faeces in the environment. Cattle are the…
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This Robot’s Got Milk
Dairy cows never take a day off. That means dairy farmers had to keep a similar work schedule — until robotic milking came along. Although robotic milking technology has been around for about 20 years, it’s recently become more advanced and widely used. The Astronaut A4 is the latest generation of robotic milker from agricultural technology…
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Orange Rinds May Help Rid Cows of E. Coli
A scientist describes his unconventional approach to food safety A cow’s rumen has an incredibly thick population of microbes, somewhere between 10 billion and 100 billion microbes per milliliter of its fluid. Escherichia coli and Salmonella are two, but they are found in relatively low levels, maybe one out of 10 million cells. For…
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Vaccine for Cattle Offers Hope to Poorest Farmers
A new approach to vaccinating cattle could help farmers worldwide, research suggests. Scientists have developed a technique using a harmless parasite, which lives in cows but has no effect on their health, to carry medicines into the animals’ bloodstream. Researchers created the vaccine by inserting key genetic material from a vaccine into the parasite’s DNA.…
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‘Boom and bust’ of deforestation
Image via Wikipedia This is the first in our new category of “Innovation Needed”. The areas we will cover in this section all require a radical rethinking of our approach and reflect a huge need for modification of our behaviors – quickly . . . Cutting down Amazon forest for cattle and soy does not…
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One Moos and One Hums, but They Could Help Power Google
Image via Wikipedia Hey diddle diddle. Guess what the cow has done this time? America’s dairy farmers could soon find themselves in the computer business, with the manure from their cows possibly powering the vast data centers of companies like Google and Microsoft. While not immediately intuitive, the idea plays on two trends: the building…