RFID in the Livestock Industry, from Traceability to a Decision Taking Tool in the Cattle-Yards

In recent years, the main change being observed in the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers for livestock, is not related to the development of RFID technology itself. Instead, is to incorporate RFID as part of a cattle information system, combined with an animal database and the Internet, to bring the information to the cattle-yards to increase productivity; the more on-site information the more efficiency to take decisions on individual animals. In this work the development of a decision-taking tool based on an ISO11784/85 RFID reader combined with a mobile-app and Cloud based services is presented. Particularly, the development of a use log and statistics of usage are presented, that helps better understand the needs of the industry and help guide the developers towards deploying an valuable and effective tool for the industry.