Cattle tracker using active RFID tags

The system utilizes active 418 MHz RFID tags, sensors that monitor an animal's internal temperature and transceivers to transmit each tag's unique serial number, as well as the animal's temperature, to an Internet server hosted by IBM. There, the unique serial number of that tag is linked with the animal and its health record.  

 

What makes this RFID cattle-tracking system unique, says TekVet president and chairman Tali J. Haleua, is that it uses an active RFID tag, as opposed to a passive one. Furthermore, it comes with a temperature sensor so it can to alert parties when an animal becomes sick, and it provides a Web site where interested parties can easily track the health and movement of an animal or herd.  

 

A tag is attached to an animal's ear, and the tag's temperature sensor is inserted into the ear canal. Once an hour, the tag transmits its unique ID number and the animal's temperature. That transmission is captured by transceivers known as TekVet SmartReceivers, also manufactured by Nationwide Electronics.
  
 
The SmartReceivers can be attached to poles or walls of buildings on a cattle producer's lot, offering a read range averaging 300 to 500 feet. The devices use a 900 MHz private satellite communication network to transmit tag and sensor data to an IBM-hosted data center, where information on millions of cattle worldwide can be displayed online. The Web site containing this data is accessible by producers, investors and food-safety regulators, enabling them to determine the lot where an animal is located, based on which transceiver is receiving the tag data. 

this would definitely be usefull in monitoring animals health, it has additional beneifits in that in can help with animal insemination - by monitoring the animals temperature during mating season , you can see when the animal is ready to be impregnated thereby increasing the cahnces of her falling pregnant (in the case of Artificial breeding this would reduce the instances of revisits - thus saving money)  

TekVet-IBM Cattle Tracker Uses Active RFID Tags, Satellite Communication http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?2612/