As if it were a magic wand, a livestock producer passes a tool similar to a stick through a barcode of a veterinary study and automatically enters the information into the animal's record along with other data. Then, the producer can review that data from his cell phone whenever he wants.
The "stick" is the cattle caravan reader Baqueano and the system where the information is dumped is Tero, both developments of the Uruguayan technology company Bqn.
"In 2011 we launched the SNIG (National Livestock Information System) caravan reader, which is responsible for livestock traceability in the country. That reader was only for collecting information and that is why in April this year we added tero.com.uy, a platform that centralizes the information and allows us to manage it. With this we gave more power to the data," explained Martín Palacios, the company's commercial manager.
The system gathers data in a file for each animal that includes health, reproductive, genealogical and field location information, among others. "You can obtain several reports or search for animals that meet any criteria that the user defines. With the information recorded by the reader and entered into the system, the producer can generate reports manually or in electronic spreadsheets on his own, so the transition to the Tero system represents a substantial change in his activity," he explained. The platform is designed to connect to and receive data from any other device, software or application, such as Uruguay's livestock traceability system.
At the moment, Tero is only in web support, but Palacios said that before the end of the year the app will be ready. "Today producers can consult the information on their cell phones through a browser, because the platform is responsive, but this year the application will be ready," he said.
As the platform is online and the data is stored in the cloud, Bqn expects the product to transcend local borders and reach customers in the region. "We already have users of Baqueano readers in other countries (see box) and we hope to arrive with Tero to complement the service," Palacios remarked.
The platform comes in several versions. One is free, with basic functions such as age of the animal, sex, category, paddock or lot where it is and who is the owner, but there are also five others with a cost: the first one admits up to 1,100 animals, offers more functions and costs US$ 7 (plus VAT). For example, it allows you to store other characteristics of the animals, such as reproductive, health and genealogical information (kinship relationships). Payment plans go up to US$ 50 plus VAT, depending on the number of animals, the type of establishment and the number of users.
Source: El País
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