Wareham: Novel Technologies For Change
Fifth-generation Nebraska rancher Jaclyn Wilson, and her family, launched an innovative project using advanced technologies to track cattle as verified digital assets. Flying Diamond Beef, Wilson’s ranch-to-consumer business, proactively provides consumer-focused solutions that add system trust and security throughout the chain.
In June, 20 head of Flying Diamond steers received a Bluetooth EmbediVet sensor for health tracking and immutable proof of life records from Livestock Labs. Additional unique “animal specific” data points, such as facial recognition and genomic data, were collected and stored securely on a blockchain using ERC-721 tokens, or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT).
Once tokenized, Wilson’s ranch and meat company can continue collecting and updating valuable metadata such as heartbeat for proof of life, vaccination history, rations, logistics for customer-centric verifications/claims and movement. She can share specific pieces of data, or the whole story, with permissioned stakeholders or viewers. As with all new technologies, it will take time to accurately assess what the holistic system cost will be along the entire value chain. However, if the cost of these technologies becomes feasible to integrate at scale, the impact to the industry is clear.
According to Wilson: “I think we sometimes forget that to progress as an industry we need to be open to new ideas and thought processes and technologies, like genomics, biometrics, implanted sensors. Why not?”
Other practical uses are obvious. The recent cases of fraud in cattle feeding comes to mind. It would be difficult to create fraudulent reports or transactions if this new technology was available. The immutable proof of life and movement tracking are powerful components.
I also see value in the proof of life, or inventory verification, within the financial segments. Key account managers that oversee large, production system debt can better help their institutions and customers monitor risk exposure and speed up new loan originations and credit line renewals.
There are additional uses for some of these technologies in cattle feeding and harvesting. Monitoring body temperatures and eating patterns to help reduce mortality rates and related economic losses could be significant. By accurately signaling the onset of illnesses, treatments can be executed faster than today’s methods. Further, inventories from ranch-to-rail can be constantly evaluated in real time for days-to-finish metrics allowing for improvements in timing of supply estimates that will help manage cattle flow. In turn, this can also help add some resiliency to our overall supply chain.
Jared Wareham is the North American business development manager for ABS NuEra. He has been involved in the cattle industry for over two decades, in business development roles growing genetics-focused companies that service producers along the beef value chain by driving the integration of precision-based production.
