Which Technologies Pay Off for Ranchers

Learning which technologies to adopt or pass by is crucial to cow-calf operations. These advancements open countless doors, but they don’t have a place on every operation.  

“Some companies think they have a great solution for animal agriculture, but they're not necessarily from the industry,” explains Chelsea Good. “Are they actually a solution to a problem that animal ag is asking to be fixed?” 

Chelsea Good is the owner of Good and Associates. She has extensive background in livestock marketing, traceability, agriculture technology and industry relationships.  

Technology has to solve real problems for real ranchers and deliver an ROI. 

“There are a lot of technologies that are neat and novel, but we have to really break down what the ROI is of each technology at the ranch level,” explains Jared Wareham.  

Wareham is the founder of Horizon Venture Management and works with both businesses and venture capital companies to help startups focus on the right problems to truly solve the right problems for their target customers.  

Technology Options for Ranchers 

“I think there are technologies that are out there today that are really awesome,” shares Wareham. 

Technology is a broad term which can include anything from vaccines to virtual fence and almost anything in between. Specific technologies catching attention in the ranching space are the plethora of tags, genomics tests, virtual fencing, camera technologies, genetic modification and herd record platforms.  

“These technologies are tools in a tool belt that you wear to work every day,” explains Wareham. “You wouldn't take a claw hammer and use it for every single job you have on the ranch.” 

Ranchers should be aware of which problem(s) each technology solves, and how they integrate into existing ranch systems. 

Tag Technologies 

Ear tag technology can range from EIDs to biometric tracking or GPS tags. RFIDs and EIDs are the some of the longest standing technologies in this area that provide a variety of efficiency benefits in recording keeping, traceability and cattle marketing.  

Good explains, “The most basic use case is keeping track of animals, keeping track of health and genetics, identifying how those animals perform and getting that information back to producers to help them make good decisions.” 

After that, comes biometric tracking tags. Depending on the company, these tags can include features that range from estrus detection, identify illnesses and even measuring forage intake. Every feature has value but the value of each is not equal from operation to operation. 

“I was on an operation in South Dakota the other day that put the tags in right before they do CIDR work,” shares Good. “It helped them detect heat on a third of one set of heifers right before they were going to do CIDRS.”  

Implementing heat detection technology allowed this specific operation to breed via natural heat detection and obtain higher conception rates than putting all the heifers through a synchronized protocol – a very specific use case with a high ROI. 

GPS also works with biometric tracking. GPS features aid in identifying predator challenges, theft, grazing patterns and even protecting bull investments. 

“Bulls are expensive and depreciate rapidly,” says Wareham. “If we can put a GPS tag in our herd bulls, we have some ability to understand how often they're moving and if there’s a problem.” 

Biometric tracking and GPS are teaching the beef industry a lot, but there are also unknown consequences to consider, especially in the animal health space where risk of overtreating and antimicrobial resistance could appear. 

Wareham says, “We can't let our animals get sick and die, but the same time, we do know there are ramifications by overuse of it.” 

Genomic Testing 

Genomic testing technology has application in both the cow-calf and seedstock space. Most commonly to improve EPD accuracy or create benchmarks for cow-calf producers.  

“I'm a believer in genomic testing and appreciate that technology,” says Wareham. “But I think sometimes we treat it like a hammer that can solve every problem without looking at some of the lower hanging fruit.” 

The following questions can be used to help determine how applicable this technology is to individual operations.  

• Are seedstock suppliers doing all they can to provide high-quality genetics? 

• Are adequate performance and herd records available to make informed breeding and culling decisions? 

• When buying sets of heifers, how much information do you have on those groups or individuals? 

Genomic testing more than has its place, but like all other technology, it needs to be implemented appropriately to see an ROI.  

Virtual Fence 

Virtual fence is creating more conversation and excitement than ever before. Ranchers utilizing public lands or even renting pastures are undoubtedly able to utilize more of the acres available to them.  

“A lot of ranches that run up in the forests must constantly repair fences from snow or from elk or other kinds of wildlife. Replacing that infrastructure with a collar, does have an ROI in certain situations,” says Wareham. 

However, stocker operations or even cow-calf operations might not see that ROI depending on the forages they graze, operation size and overall goals. 

“I think you could find ways like they do in New Zealand to utilize those collars to get a lot of animals and a small amount of acreage and make that work with your grazing plan,” says Wareham. “It really depends and again, geography matters in this situation.” 

Additional benefits ranchers see from virtual fence technology include predation confirmation, labor savings and time savings. 

Camera Technologies 

Camera technologies have had a stronger presence in the packing and feeder spaces until recently. Oftentimes packing plants will use cameras and machine learning to grade carcasses, identify and sort cuts or even train employees where to cut. In the feedlot space, cameras are being used to read bunks and save on labor. 

Wareham says, “If we can do these things and deploy that technology in the feed yard, we could probably also deploy it on the ranch.” 

In the ranching space, cameras are more recently being used to obtain estimated weights on live animals. 

“They’ve developed applications on your phone where you can weigh cattle, based on photos and videos,” says Good. “Is it scale accurate? No. Is it much better than a human eye? Yes.” 

This application of technology can be highly valuable for those trying to make weight come shipping day. Cameras are also being used in calving scenarios. 

“I think before long we will have cameras that can detect and anticipate an event instead of sitting and watching the camera for the event to happen,” says Wareham. 

Saving energy during high-stress seasons like calving is imperative, but this technology has little application for those calving on open range.  

Herd Record Programs 

A seemingly simpler technology with no less impact is digital record keeping. Collecting, organizing and utilizing herd records is a low hanging fruit to clean up any operation or simply keep it running smoothly.  

“A lot of operations have figured out a way to capture the information they need,” shares Good. “My challenge to those digital record keeping companies would be how are you doing this in ways that add value to that operation.” 

The records that need to be collected and analyzed are unique to every operation. Additionally, policy isn’t driving the need for the same record keeping processes being experienced in the UK or other regions.  

Wareham says, “Do I think these programs have value? Yes. Do I think if you're not using one, you're making a mistake? Not necessarily.” 

Next Steps for Ranchers 

Ranchers have an integral role in shaping which technologies enter their ranch and industry. 

“You have to explore the technology that's going bridge the gap between this generation and the next. To me that’s the most important thing from the ranch's standpoint,” shares Wareham. 

After that, inviting those outside of production agriculture to the table will make an even bigger difference for what technologies are coming down the line. 

“My call out to producers is we can't just point fingers at companies and ag tech,” says Good. “I think we have to welcome them into conversation about which areas technology can make a difference and we would be willing to invest in.” 

Listen to the full conversation on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast.