Implementation Plans

The issue of OTAG project was, in relation to the SSA program issues and objectives, to propose Geodecisional system for extensive bovine production risk management together with standards for acquisition, treatment and diffusion of the geodecisional bovine production best practices information through a open source Spatialized Geodecisional Information Systems (SGIS) shared via Internet. Analysis of geospatial data acquisition and processing methods is a major element of the set up of the geodecisional system concept and refer to the Geotracability concept as well as to the data acquisition and transfer procedures and the quality control of the information used for the calculation of risk management indicators. This analysis made it possible to establish the bases for the definition of the geodecisional concept and of the quality ranking of the output. The WP2 will provide and update on the state of the art as well as a technology watch that will feed the WP3 and WP4.

OTAG propose to take in account as a spatial reference scheme the land use (using remote sensing technologies as well as geographical information) in relation with the initial location of a sub-group of cattle. A reference polygon will be delimitated for each initial group and a centroide will be associated to one reference animal (see figure 1) and use as a “decisional polygon” (DP).

Figure 1: “Decisional polygon”

The reference animal will be equipped with a RFID and GPS sensors mounted on a collar developed by Cemagref and EMBRAPA. All other animals located inside the reference polygon will be connected and linked to the reference animal by using an ear tag (figure 2).

Figure 2: OTAG operational on field data acquisition and management

Each animal will keep a connection to the reference animal only when it stays inside the predefine reception zone. When the animal moved out it will connect to another reception zone and it will be taken into account by another reference animal and attached to a new decisional polygon.

The system will manage information related to each animal in term of movement and its mobility as well as information delivered by others sensors or databases downloaded to the tag. Through the collar attached to the reference animal any other interoperable devices with a compatible protocol could be used to upload or download the information for each animal. Operational tools boxes will be adapted and optimized to support efficiently and operationally data acquisition, exchange and transfer. The transfer could be towards a fix reception base station or towards a mobile reception system running by a cowboy or a manager. The system will be configured to use in the near future the satellite communication technologies (GSM) as well to use Galileo GPS system.

Each movement of the animal will be computed as well as its cohabitation with other animal by using a hyperbolic tree system developed by EMBRAPA. Each animal will have a unique number of reference and non transferable. The track and trace geodecisional system will permit via Internet to manage any crises/potential crises through accurate traceability database. The system will permit to back to animal primary source as well as primary group, ensuring accountability from and between all operators as well as enabling food-safety authorities to act quickly in a crisis situation. At the farm-end of the chain, cooperatives/syndicates will be able to better monitor beef production practices and cattle movement and mobility in association with pasture condition. The animal feeding issue could be take into consideration in the near future. The system will produce decisional map and geodecisional indices to support the risk management and decision-making. Thereby enabling them to add value for their farming communities through certifiable provenance of the animal.