A smart examination to improve livestock management efficiency [Video]

KAY LEDBETTERTexas A&M AgriLife

A Texas A&M AgriLife animal nutritionist believes precision livestock management — utilizing an extra set of eyes and ears and a little artificial intelligence — can go a long way toward making today’s livestock operations more efficient.

Luis Tedeschi, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Research Fellow and Chancellor EDGES Fellow in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Animal Science, is looking for cost-effective and noninvasive methods of monitoring feeding behaviors in livestock operations that producers can adapt to improve their bottom line – all through alerts on a cell phone or computer.

Texas has about 3 million cattle in feedlots and another 10 million cows, heifers, steers, bulls and calves in different feeding situations annually.

Tedeschi said if the managers of these livestock use modern technological advances or “smart” practices, then the industry can better understand what is happening at the feed bunk and in the …