cattle monitoring system

Ovi-bovi cattle monitoring system

Ovi-bovi cow tag continuously tracks animal’s activity and transmits the data for a distance of 2 to 5 km in license-free 433 MHz band From economic perspective, detection of ovulation in cows is a major challenge for modern dairy farming worldwide. The onset of ovulation is preceded by the period of estrus, or heat; it is time when cow behaves quite specifically and lends itself to visual identification. But with average farm size growing, visual heat detection becomes less and less reliable. Methods to detect estrus and ovulation in cows (ovulatio bovīna) as suggested by research community vary in a wide range between measuring progesterone concentration in milk (which provides golden standard in estrus detection but is prohibitively expensive) to spectral analysis of cow’s mooing (which is undeniably extravagant but hardly practical).

Ovi-bovi receiver in robust metal casing with two sockets, one for the SMA-type antenna connector and another one for the PoE cable Ovi-bovi system is heighly efficient for heifers too, starting from 12 months age, as the ones pictured here (Chachkovo farm, Minsk region) For timely and accurate detection of estrus in dairy and beef cows and heifers we have developed wearable non-invasive collar-placed activity tags — bringing in our expertise in m2m wireless communications and building upon the experience of day-to-day usage of automated cattle activity monitoring systems from world’s top brands (such as Dairymaster, Nedap, Heatime) on farms in Belarus. Our system includes:

1. individual collar-worn activity tags for cows
2. receiver supporting 2 to 5 km wireless range
3. cloud-based software for data processing and visualization

Ovi-bovi tags fit any standard 4 cm wide collar with no need to keep any specific sensor position and orientation. Expected battery life of each tag is over 10 years; if necessary, a tag can be swapped from one animal to another anytime. The tag’s operation is enabled by continuous monitoring of animal’s activity with three-axis MEMS-based accelerometer. Cow activity data is transmitted by a tag every 20 minutes in ten-minutes chunks over 5+ km from the tags to the receiver (actual range is dependent on receiver antenna elevation, type of terrain and other details; in-the-field measurements are advised before installation if range is critical).

Ovi-bovi tags are manufactured according to the registered specification BY 191640612.001-2016 and conform to the requirements of Eurasian Customs Union technical regulations 020/2011 on electromagnetic compatibility of equipment, declaration № BY/112 11.01. ТР020 003 20945. In addition to the main longrange radio, the tags have NFC chips with ISO 15693 (13,56 MHz) radiointerface readable by any device complying to ISO 15693 which you might have on the farm. Upon touching the tag with NFC-enabled smartphone you will have the card of the cow linked to that tag being opened automatically. You can also switch tag’s default activity tracking regime with data pre-processing to raw accelerometer data logging (that’s how researchers at São Paulo studied cattle behaviour in tropical conditions) and do even more tweaks if needed.

When in heat, a cow shows specific activity which allows to determine estrus event automatically. Once the heat (or abnormal activity drop which can signal cow illness or just a lost collar) is detected by the software, farm staff are alerted via Telegram immediately. Routine insemination can be recorded in three clicks:

For convenient work in the Ovi-bovi web app though, we recommend you use anything larger than a smartphone — a tablet or laptop would be perfectly ok.

Cow in heat as determined by the system appears with its activity plot preview in the Heats section of the app. For example, this screenshot shows four heats detected 3, 4, 10 and 20 hours ago, with history of all heats and inseminations during past month, showing peak activity during heat (vertically), how timely the service was (by the color of the left half of each droplet), and the result the system automatically determined over time (by the color of the right half):

Below the History section one finds statisctics for the chosen interval:

Further below an impotant Days open plot marks long-open cows:

Data for each cow can be accessed by a click:

The app is easy to use but very informative, details are in the user's guide. The software platform is built exclusively on modern open-source technology stack (Python 3.14 + PostgreSQL 18 + Vue 3.5) without a single direct dependency on proprietary third-party products, while the data is hosted on Tier III servers physically located in Belarus, safe from any political “sanctions” by USA or EU governments. You can reach it anytime, anywhere, from any device through a normal browser using your login credentials. Upon request our system can be integrated with other accounting and statistics programs into a unified farm management automated system.

Technical specifications

By design, Ovi-bovi tag sits perfectly on any collar of standard width of 4 cm

Ovi-bovi user’s guide