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Cows Identified by Retinal Imaging
wackoman2112 writes "According to this article, ranchers on western cattle ranches are keeping track of their cattle with the "OptiReader," a small handheld which takes retinal scans. They scan a cow's eye and record information in the database about the animal's color, weight, and genetic linage. Hmmm... This could be justification for a YRO for animals."
Rectal imaging...
I guess that will be the end of the cowbells.
Cowbells are pretty cool though. I spent some time in the Austrian Alps and met some farmers who could tell me which cow was nearby by the pitch of the bell.
I suppose the next thing to come along will be RFID tags for cows.
More than enough BS
inventory control is something to me that makes a lot of sense. people foamed at the mouth when RFID tags were to be put in clothes, but few realized that they're useless once they leave the store that owns the clothes. its just inventory control, to keep people from stealing said clothes.
farmers are doing it for more than just inventory control though, they're using it to easily determine which genetic lines produce the best milk producers, the best meat, etc. this is a good thing, it *should* lower the prices of milk and beef a bit, and it should improve the overall quality the steak on your table.
i'm all for this. technology for tracking isn't *all* bad.
Just out of curiosity.... do the retinal images of cows never change just the way human finger prints don't change from childhood to death ??
I think these animals have a little more to be worried about than having their retinas scanned. I think they're worried about being eaten.
"This could be justification for a YRO for animals."
Hmmmm. Yeah, that would be a great idea except for the fact that COWS CAN'T READ!
Spelling: Michael vs. Micheal. The debate rages on!
I'd also rather not be eaten.
(How about a Your Cow Online Section? )
Karma: Bad due to google bombing - Robert Watkins woz 'ere.
One of many examples of the ways different areas of science can be useful to real people when you mix them. Here we have forensics + computer science + farming = innovation. Why can't more people think like this?
I've worked on farms and the last thing farmers seem to care about is the short term pain (and long term in some cases) of their prisoners.
Branding
Ear tags
De-beaking
Artificial insemination
Murder
A was in a shed when a shearer cut off the nipple of one of the sheep. His reaction - pissed off because he had to stop shearing to "take care" of the poor animal. First he applied anaesthetic (well, he hit it on the forehead until it stopped struggling) and then kind of sewed up the hole and pushed it down the ramp into the outside pen.
The fields are full of cows, ever wonder where all the bulls are?
The fields are full of sheep, ever wonder where the rams are?
Where are the chickens? Oh there's thousands of them crammed into that little shed, three to cage and they have to have their beaks cut off to stop them killing each other.
The trouble with country folk is they've lost touch with nature.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Interesting that this should trigger a YRO-like response,
where cows have had to wear a unique ID printed/burned on a yellow eartag, one for each ear, for years already (at least in the Netherlands, but I've seem them in
Germany as well).
Doing identification by retinal scanning seems *much*
more humane to me than identification by plastic yellow
flaps shot through the ears. It'd take us back to the times
when identification was mostly done based on the cow's
hide patterns, but without the trickiness in identifying the
pattern if the hide has been damaged...
RFID technology has been in use on cows for years. It was probably one of the first commercial applications. My cousin's dairy farm has used it for about 2 decades. When a cow comes up to the feeder, a sensor reads it's id from it's neck tag and the computer decides how much feed to give the cow. The more milk they give, the more feed they get.
Finally I feel safe! Terrorist cows will no longer be a threat to my security.
Rien n'est plus beau que le creux du 0.
Even with this technology, ear tags will still be used some places to control parasites/pests. The real meat here (pun intended) is the connection to a secure central DB that can track the animals from ranch to market.
But think of the B to B marketing implications of this. Wiether we tag these animals on the ear, useing RFID tags, retinal images, or through radio isometric quantum anal tagging; we are in an age that is going to allow us to make huge leaps in the area of animal husbandry, tracking production, and one day we might even be able to have these primary identifiers make economic decisions for farmers. Cow 39 has stopped producing quota supplies of milk, send in the Slaughterbot 9000.
--"Sorry for the inconvience." Gods Last Words to his Creation
DNA, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
While the retinal scanning does sound promising, that also only helps while the animal is alive. Plus, it requires a certain degree of "cooperation" with the cows. The tags are also more efficient for identifying members of a pen at a distance by tag color alone. Once they come into our facilites, too, retinal scanning does us no good as they get knocked and killed pretty quick. Unless you wanted to track the offal by retinal scans, that's about all it would be good for. You'd be surprised at the way in which our livestock is inventoried and moved around these plants; it is quite scientific, humane, and sterile.
--Chag
I dunno. Seems to me that the cows would much rather prefer retinal scans to rectal scans.
I read "rectal" instead of "retinal." That would've been pretty curious.
--- Sigmentation Fault - Comments Dumped
Am I the only one who is picturing a variation on a scene on Star Trek 2?
Cow: Moo.
Computer: Stand by for retinal scan.
Cow: Moo.
[Computer scans]
Cow on screen: Moo.
Cow: Moo.
Cow on screen: Moo, moo.
[Screen switches to expensive animation showing Genesis probe transforming planet. Fields of grass everywhere!]
Cow: Moo!
This could probably do a lot for the current problems with canadian beef and MadCow.
The problems being that some countried (ie the US and Mexico) will not import live canadian cattele, since other countries fear it would in turn be exported to them.
A central DB with retnal scans could effectivly track cattle movement from birth, to slaughter house, allowing for easier tracking of communitable diseases, and such. And in this case, to effectivly prevent (and prove), imported cattle from being exported.
paul reinheimer
Good to see you in the slaughterhouse, Ms. Mirabelle! How're the calves doing? Perhaps you'd be interested in the latest cowbells from The Gap? Or perhaps some high quality hay from McDonalds for your last meal? After all, they serve McNuggets there, too!
</salespitch>
(Apologies if redundant because someone beat me to it - just mod it down. Don't waste time flaming)
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
"And all those other people out there who have no idea what's going on are the cattle. Mooo!"
"Sir, we can't kill this cow. It refuses to open its eyes, so we cannot ID it and update the database."
"I was afraid this would happen some day. This might be the beginning of a revolution..."
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
...I'm pretty sure I could identify a cow by forming an image of it on my retina, even if it tried to hide amongst chickens, or even sheep. If it's such a problem, couldn't ranchers just spray 'cow' in red paint on the sides of the beasts?
Did anyone else look at the title and think it said: "Cows Identified by Rectal Imaging"???
No. The problem is that WE have lost touch with nature. We eat other living things(and other living things, although admittedly very rarely, eat us). It's called "the food chain". If you want to be a '5th level vegan' who doesn't eat anything that 'casts a shadow', be my fuckin' guest. I don't bother you about being a vegitarian, don't fucking bother me about having a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, and (gasp) a glass of milk.
That said- huge industrial farms are disgusting, yes. Don't like how Tyson treats their chickens?(chances are you can find plenty of 'dirt' online). Buy local farm chickens. Vote with your wallet, folks.
Please help metamoderate.
huge industrial farms are disgusting
Independent farmers here are a small minority. The land was seized and divided by the Normans in 1066 and has stayed pretty much the same since then.
Most farmers are employees.
Intensive farming impacts us all. Whether it be from wasteful use of water or putting pesticides and hormones and anti-biotics into your precious food chain.
Voting with your wallet is one strategy for making changes and if you are really true to that then good for you and good for everyone else. But how much processed food do you eat? When you eat a chocolate biscuit and the ingredients say "animals fats" where do you think they come from?
have you ever been in a slaughter house?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2686421.stm
Thur
Unfit meat 'may be in food chain'
Ok, so you think my position is extreme, and it is.
You seem to have an opinion about intensive farming but what have you *ever* done about it? I speak out and if I don't take a stand and say "No" then nothing will happen.
"What do we want?"
"Moderate change"
"When do we want it?"
"In due course"
just won't achieve anything
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter