Before the SmartStock bolus was developed, ranchers and feedlot operators would depend on pen-riders on horseback or motor vehicles, to visually look for outward visual signs of “sick cattle”. With reduced available labor in dairies, feedlots and in pastures, each pen rider would have to inspect thousands of cattle daily. Those “sick looking” cattle would then be pulled and a rectal temperature would be performed to determine if the animal was in fact sick.
The core body temperature and other health parameters are monitored and then on a regular basis the data along with a unique animal I.D is transmitted to a collective database. The bolus is an active RFID transmitter that will transmit an RF based signal up to about 300 feet to an integrated data base system. The 300 foot transmission range gives a total diameter of up to 600 feet.