Farming cows is a thankless task; keeping track of their fertility sounds funny, but it’s what keeps meat in your burger and milk on your cereal. Fortunately, mobile technology means that cows can now drop their farmers an SMS when they’re feeling frisky. That’s right. Bovine sexting has arrived.
A new intelligent collar has been designed by researchers from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, that uses the same sensor as the Wii to keep track of a cow’s movement and activity, reports PhysOrg. From that movement, the scientists have been able to work out the characteristic behaviour of cows when they’re ready to get it on, as well as other, more boring, things, like when the they’re going in to labour.
When the collar notices the cow moving in a particular way, it drops the farmer a text message. From there, he can, uh, lend a hand. Sadly, these days that probably means performing artificial insemination, as it’s the most reliable way to get cows pregnant. But in my head, the farmer responds to the call by rounding up along a selection of bulls for the cow to choose from in some sort of reverse-harem situation.
The upshot? Less, er, hands-on time for farmers, which in turn means more affordable meat and dairy products. [PhysOrg]
Image: Ernst Vikne