Smart Paddock’s smart GPS ear tag, “Bluebell,” remotely monitors livestock via Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® standard.
Semtech Corporation announced its collaboration with Smart Paddock, an Australian company providing smart tags for the livestock industry that provide real-time information to producers.
The collaboration features the implementation of Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® standard into Smart Paddock’s “Bluebell” smart global positioning system (GPS) ear tag to monitor livestock location in real time as well as to analyze the cattle’s behavioral data to solve real world livestock management issues.
“To develop Smart Paddock’s GPS livestock ear tag, we researched and evaluated all the wireless communications protocols available on the market,” said Darren Wolchyn, CEO and founder of Smart Paddock.
“To meet our customer needs of a low cost ear tag that could be deployed in the thousands over large farm properties, LoRaWAN came out on top of all other technologies for its long distance capabilities.”
According to Smart Paddock, the “Bluebell” smart GPS ear tags are the smallest and lightest in the industry, with over 1,200 tracking devices deployed over the last three years across farm properties in Australia and New Zealand and more than 10,000 deployments planned in the next year. “Bluebell” is an ideal network solution as the tag can support and encourage farmers to add other operational Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to their farms to monitor water level, set up electric fences that utilize an existing LoRaWAN network, among more.
“Smart Paddock’s utilization of LoRaWAN is a proven example of where IoT technology is actively shaping the future of farming to be smarter and more efficient,” said Marc Pégulu, vice president of IoT product marketing and strategy for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “The unparalleled benefits of LoRa devices that both minimize expenses and reduce environmental impact of any IoT solution is promising for the field of smart agriculture.”
