Monitoring dairy calves with precision technologies based on the “internet of things,” or IoT, leads to the earlier diagnosis of calf-killing bovine respiratory disease, according to a new study. The novel approach—a result of crosscutting collaboration by a team of researchers from Penn State, University of Kentucky and University of Vermont—will offer dairy producers an opportunity to improve the economies of their farms, according to researchers.
Monitoring dairy calves with precision technologies based on the “internet of things,” or IoT, leads to the earlier diagnosis of calf-killing bovine respiratory disease, according to a new study. The novel approach—a result of crosscutting collaboration by a team of researchers from Penn State, University of Kentucky and University of Vermont—will offer dairy producers an opportunity to improve the economies of their farms, according to researchers.
This is not your grandfather’s dairy farming strategy, notes lead researcher Melissa Cantor, assistant professor of precision dairy science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Cantor noted that new technology is becoming increasingly affordable, offering farmers opportunities to detect animal health problems soon enough to intervene, saving the calves and the investment they represent.
IoT refers to embedded devices equipped with sensors, processing and communication abilities, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data with other devices over the Internet.
