95% accurate way to automate cattle weighing

One of the most interesting videos which many farmers saw at the National Ploughing Championships featured Agritech Ltd’s StrongBó automated weighing system for beef farms.

In the video, the stall-like device was parked in the corner of a field.

It has a trough which can contain a mineral lick, or a drinking trough if it is plumbed for water, and curious cattle came to investigate it, and they weigh themselves by standing on it.

As a result, if the cattle have electronic tags, farmers get hundreds of cattle weighing results every day.

The attached software can identify the growth rates of the individual cattle or the group, useful information which can be used to pick out sick animals, or to show the right time to sell animals.

The data collected can be used to accelerate selective breeding on farms (especially on research farms). All the data can be accessed 24/7 from any device with a browser and internet access. Therefore, it can be accessed by farm advisors while in their offices, without visiting farms.

Mechanical engineer Micheál McInerney, from a farming background in Co Galway, and software developer and medical devices engineer Ivan Wahlrab, are the team behind the product.

In 2015, Micheál built a prototype and installed it on his father’s farm.

Later, Micheál and Ivan improved the device, including creating proprietary algorithms to approximate an individual animal’s weight based on a handful of weight readings. They also enabled the device to filter out false readings which occur if several animals stand on the device together.

Currently the prototype analyses over 1,500 weight readings per day on the test farm in Co Galway, a much easier job than manually weighing the cattle, and offering 95% accuracy.

Built of galvanised steel, the weighing platform is self-sufficient when used outdoors with a solar panel.

But it can also be used indoors or in a cattle crush.