Shaye Koester (00:00):
Hey, Hey, it's Shaye Koester and I'm your host for Casual Cattle Conversations, where we talk about all things related to ranching, through sharing the stories and practices of different ranchers and their operations.
Hey, Hey, it's Shaye Koester and I'm your host for Casual Cattle Conversations, where we talk about all things related to ranching, through sharing the stories and practices of different ranchers and their operations.
Shaye Koester (00:18):
Alrighty folks, thanks for tuning in for another one. It is great to have you on here today. We are going to hear from Malcolm Harvey with Fort Supply Technologies, and we will be talking about understanding how the EID system works and how to implement them on your operation. So we are talking everything down to the nitty-gritty about how signals get transferred and why the tags work the way they do. We're going to talk about low frequency and high-frequency tags. If you're interested in watching the full video or even just segments of the video, those will also be posted on my social media and YouTube channels. There, you can see Malcolm fully explain and demonstrate how this all works and we're going to talk about, you know, ROI, why it's important and a little bit about some policy that will be coming up regarding this technology too.
Alrighty folks, thanks for tuning in for another one. It is great to have you on here today. We are going to hear from Malcolm Harvey with Fort Supply Technologies, and we will be talking about understanding how the EID system works and how to implement them on your operation. So we are talking everything down to the nitty-gritty about how signals get transferred and why the tags work the way they do. We're going to talk about low frequency and high-frequency tags. If you're interested in watching the full video or even just segments of the video, those will also be posted on my social media and YouTube channels. There, you can see Malcolm fully explain and demonstrate how this all works and we're going to talk about, you know, ROI, why it's important and a little bit about some policy that will be coming up regarding this technology too.
Shaye Koester (01:15):
But with that, I really appreciate your support so far. Make sure you go ahead and give me those ratings on whatever app you're listening to. Now, why do I always ask for these ratings? Well, the truth is every rating you give me helps boost me up in the whole system. So that way more people can find my podcast. Now on social media, make sure you're giving me those likes comments, shares, and tag a friend who would be interested in hearing the topic or you think would benefit from the topic. All of that helps everyone build community and access this information sooner. If you're interested, make sure to tune into my lives on the off Mondays of publishing new episodes and on those lives are where we can connect in real time and recap some episode content. If you're interested in supporting this podcast and being able to have access to special episodes, please become a patron.
But with that, I really appreciate your support so far. Make sure you go ahead and give me those ratings on whatever app you're listening to. Now, why do I always ask for these ratings? Well, the truth is every rating you give me helps boost me up in the whole system. So that way more people can find my podcast. Now on social media, make sure you're giving me those likes comments, shares, and tag a friend who would be interested in hearing the topic or you think would benefit from the topic. All of that helps everyone build community and access this information sooner. If you're interested, make sure to tune into my lives on the off Mondays of publishing new episodes and on those lives are where we can connect in real time and recap some episode content. If you're interested in supporting this podcast and being able to have access to special episodes, please become a patron.
Shaye Koester (02:18):
So currently I have a couple of patrons and supporters who have graciously donated some money to help me keep this podcast going and pay those monthly subscriptions for me, but I don't make money off of just posting a podcast. That's not how this works. I only make money off of advertisements or patrons at the moment. So if you're interested in becoming a patron, please go to my website, casualcattleconversations.podbean.com to hit that button and become a patron. And with that, you'll get perks such as merchandise, meetings with me, social media,shout outs and all of that jazz, but really what I'm working for is I want to reward my patrons by providing special episodes that only patrons have access to. So if you're interested in that, please go to that website or shoot me a DM and email. My information is all there, but with that, let us get on with the episode.
So currently I have a couple of patrons and supporters who have graciously donated some money to help me keep this podcast going and pay those monthly subscriptions for me, but I don't make money off of just posting a podcast. That's not how this works. I only make money off of advertisements or patrons at the moment. So if you're interested in becoming a patron, please go to my website, casualcattleconversations.podbean.com to hit that button and become a patron. And with that, you'll get perks such as merchandise, meetings with me, social media,shout outs and all of that jazz, but really what I'm working for is I want to reward my patrons by providing special episodes that only patrons have access to. So if you're interested in that, please go to that website or shoot me a DM and email. My information is all there, but with that, let us get on with the episode.
Shaye Koester (03:23):
All right. So to start off, can you please explain your background in the beef industry?
All right. So to start off, can you please explain your background in the beef industry?
Malcolm Harvey (03:31):
Certainly, yeah, we come from five generations of cattle producers. We started off our farm/ranch was in Utah. Then 40 years ago, we traded the ground to convert it into homes and, and bought this ranch up in Southwest Wyoming. So we're 7,500 feet in elevation. It takes two and a half sections to raise 140 pairs in this country. So we spend most of our time feeding two and a half months trying to grow grass for one crop and then spend the rest of the time, feeding it away. So we have a lot of, lot of history with our background in, in cattle production. Our dad told the three brothers that if we wanted to keep the ranch, we'd have to go off and have developed some other job because the ranch at this size just wasn't enough to be self-sustaining.
Malcolm Harvey (04:26):
So we went off and got our degrees in electronic engineering and went often did semiconductors for quite a few years as well as international electronics and business management. And then when the national animal identification system came up back in the mid two thousands, we decided we would take our combination of electronics background and our love for livestock and the open range and try to develop products which would bring value to what was then the national animal identification system, instead of it just being a compliance to a federal regulatory system. So we have this unique background of having an active cattle ranch, being electronic engineers, and program managers. And that's, what's really merged together to bring our company Fort Supply Technologies to the forefront.
Certainly, yeah, we come from five generations of cattle producers. We started off our farm/ranch was in Utah. Then 40 years ago, we traded the ground to convert it into homes and, and bought this ranch up in Southwest Wyoming. So we're 7,500 feet in elevation. It takes two and a half sections to raise 140 pairs in this country. So we spend most of our time feeding two and a half months trying to grow grass for one crop and then spend the rest of the time, feeding it away. So we have a lot of, lot of history with our background in, in cattle production. Our dad told the three brothers that if we wanted to keep the ranch, we'd have to go off and have developed some other job because the ranch at this size just wasn't enough to be self-sustaining.
Malcolm Harvey (04:26):
So we went off and got our degrees in electronic engineering and went often did semiconductors for quite a few years as well as international electronics and business management. And then when the national animal identification system came up back in the mid two thousands, we decided we would take our combination of electronics background and our love for livestock and the open range and try to develop products which would bring value to what was then the national animal identification system, instead of it just being a compliance to a federal regulatory system. So we have this unique background of having an active cattle ranch, being electronic engineers, and program managers. And that's, what's really merged together to bring our company Fort Supply Technologies to the forefront.
Shaye Koester (05:23):
Well, that is a really neat background and how you tied in what are typically viewed as two completely separate industries, but as we can see now, technology is becoming a huge part of the beef industry.
Well, that is a really neat background and how you tied in what are typically viewed as two completely separate industries, but as we can see now, technology is becoming a huge part of the beef industry.
Malcolm Harvey (05:36):
It was exciting to think exciting, maybe surprising also when we just recognized last year, it was the 10 year anniversary of the smartphone. So when we started the company, there were no such things as smartphones. There were flip phones, but not these big screen smartphones. And so our early tablets were large clunky, heavy, and we had to teach our customers how to interface with touch screen devices, which today is commonplace.
It was exciting to think exciting, maybe surprising also when we just recognized last year, it was the 10 year anniversary of the smartphone. So when we started the company, there were no such things as smartphones. There were flip phones, but not these big screen smartphones. And so our early tablets were large clunky, heavy, and we had to teach our customers how to interface with touch screen devices, which today is commonplace.
Shaye Koester (06:09):
Well, that's pretty neat that you were kind of on the forefront of all of that. So would you provide a little bit more of a brief background on Fort Supply?
Well, that's pretty neat that you were kind of on the forefront of all of that. So would you provide a little bit more of a brief background on Fort Supply?
Malcolm Harvey (06:17):
Certainly. So in 2005, we became painfully aware, I should say, like the rest of the industry that the USDA had developed a mandate that by the beginning of 2009, all livestock were to carry a small electronic button in their ear, EID (electronic identification). And there were no provisions for how that would provide value to the livestock industry other than thou shalt comply because we're the federal government and we're going to use it to trace back in case of a disease outbreak. So it was very poorly marketed by the USDA. And we've had, we have Frank discussions with our friends that we have inside the USDA that that was not the right way to market it. And right before the 2009 deadline hit the USDA pulled back on its requirement and they went through a couple of years of rebranding their system. In the meantime, we decided that we would try to develop systems tools that cow calf guys like ourselves could use.
Certainly. So in 2005, we became painfully aware, I should say, like the rest of the industry that the USDA had developed a mandate that by the beginning of 2009, all livestock were to carry a small electronic button in their ear, EID (electronic identification). And there were no provisions for how that would provide value to the livestock industry other than thou shalt comply because we're the federal government and we're going to use it to trace back in case of a disease outbreak. So it was very poorly marketed by the USDA. And we've had, we have Frank discussions with our friends that we have inside the USDA that that was not the right way to market it. And right before the 2009 deadline hit the USDA pulled back on its requirement and they went through a couple of years of rebranding their system. In the meantime, we decided that we would try to develop systems tools that cow calf guys like ourselves could use.
Malcolm Harvey (07:31):
If we were mandated to have to use the electronic tag, how could we make that be more productive for our operation? What value could we derive from that to get more dollars per pound? So we started on a track to develop technologies using these larger older Windows-based systems that would be able to read the ID of the animal and allow us to add additional information about that animal's situation like what vaccinations has it had, what treatments if we had to give it when it was sick and what sex is it? You know, the simple stuff. When was it born? What was the weather when it was born? What was the calving ease? Then, if it's a cow that's coming through, you know, annotating, preg checking, a mouth score, body condition score, udder score all of these other attributes that when you put them all together over the first five or six years of our business, we ended up having an attribute list from all of our customers.
If we were mandated to have to use the electronic tag, how could we make that be more productive for our operation? What value could we derive from that to get more dollars per pound? So we started on a track to develop technologies using these larger older Windows-based systems that would be able to read the ID of the animal and allow us to add additional information about that animal's situation like what vaccinations has it had, what treatments if we had to give it when it was sick and what sex is it? You know, the simple stuff. When was it born? What was the weather when it was born? What was the calving ease? Then, if it's a cow that's coming through, you know, annotating, preg checking, a mouth score, body condition score, udder score all of these other attributes that when you put them all together over the first five or six years of our business, we ended up having an attribute list from all of our customers.
Malcolm Harvey (08:34):
If you tied them all together, there were about 20 different things people wanted it to do or wanted to record about the attribute of that animal. It turns out there was never one rancher that wanted to do all 20 of them because you didn't want to spend five minutes chute side recording everything about the animal, but every operation has their priority list of what they want to do or what they want to record about that animal in their normal management, which they here to for been recording by hand with a pencil or pen on a big chief notepad, and then sometimes putting that in a file cabinet, sometimes taking it back and typing it in on an Excel spreadsheet. And then, you know, taking all that manual labor out of that was what we were trying to do going chute side with that data collection, having everything wirelessly connected.
If you tied them all together, there were about 20 different things people wanted it to do or wanted to record about the attribute of that animal. It turns out there was never one rancher that wanted to do all 20 of them because you didn't want to spend five minutes chute side recording everything about the animal, but every operation has their priority list of what they want to do or what they want to record about that animal in their normal management, which they here to for been recording by hand with a pencil or pen on a big chief notepad, and then sometimes putting that in a file cabinet, sometimes taking it back and typing it in on an Excel spreadsheet. And then, you know, taking all that manual labor out of that was what we were trying to do going chute side with that data collection, having everything wirelessly connected.
Malcolm Harvey (09:28):
And so our background was to try to provide value to those operations. We even tried developing our own long-range battery-powered, electronic tags. So if you will, it was, it was a precursor to a cell phone for a cow. And we had directional finders that you could find an animal from up to a mile away through heavy brush. The problem was is that it was still $15 a tag even, and that wasn't enough value to still be able to find your animal that far away. So we backed off from that and stayed focused on the non-battery-powered tags, which are these little round electronic buttons that we've seen typically in the industry. So still going, continuing on our quest with the overview of our company, the little round electronic tag only has a read range, practical reading range, of about 12 inches.
And so our background was to try to provide value to those operations. We even tried developing our own long-range battery-powered, electronic tags. So if you will, it was, it was a precursor to a cell phone for a cow. And we had directional finders that you could find an animal from up to a mile away through heavy brush. The problem was is that it was still $15 a tag even, and that wasn't enough value to still be able to find your animal that far away. So we backed off from that and stayed focused on the non-battery-powered tags, which are these little round electronic buttons that we've seen typically in the industry. So still going, continuing on our quest with the overview of our company, the little round electronic tag only has a read range, practical reading range, of about 12 inches.
Malcolm Harvey (10:29):
You can maybe get out to 18 inches and a push of 12 inches. If you have a very large panel that can energize that tag, but then still even so the animals still have to go through a single file alleyway, and it was pretty onerous. You could really only read the tag if you had the animal's head caught. So in dairy those little round button tags, they work fine because animals are head caught all the time, multiple times a day. On cow,/calf operations, not so much, yeah, twice a year, maybe when you're working the cows, the rest of the time, they're in an open environment. And then when they go into a background or a feed yard operation, they're very rarely and infrequently in the head catch operation. And so we needed to have another technology that still did not require a battery, even so, would give us a read range you know, beyond 15 feet.
You can maybe get out to 18 inches and a push of 12 inches. If you have a very large panel that can energize that tag, but then still even so the animals still have to go through a single file alleyway, and it was pretty onerous. You could really only read the tag if you had the animal's head caught. So in dairy those little round button tags, they work fine because animals are head caught all the time, multiple times a day. On cow,/calf operations, not so much, yeah, twice a year, maybe when you're working the cows, the rest of the time, they're in an open environment. And then when they go into a background or a feed yard operation, they're very rarely and infrequently in the head catch operation. And so we needed to have another technology that still did not require a battery, even so, would give us a read range you know, beyond 15 feet.
Malcolm Harvey (11:25):
So eight years ago is we talk leading into the segue of another question you might have talking about the overview of the company. This tag came out and this tag looks like a regular panel tag except molded in the thinness of the plastic is a thin piece of aluminum foil. And then right in the middle of that aluminum foil is a little Silicon chip, the size of a pinhead. What happens is when you take a device like this and this, this is the antenna, you pull the trigger, it emits energy, not enough to cook a hot dog with, or my brain. It's safe. It emits enough energy. You have very low energy, but a very high frequency. So that means it's sending a lot of signal on a very low energy band to this tag and the antenna in this tag picks up that energy, energizes that chip, and then sends a reflection back to this device, which interprets the unique 15 digit number programmed on this chip. And we can do this now with these devices up to 30 feet, in some instances. That's 30 feet and no battery on a tag that looks like a panel tag.
So eight years ago is we talk leading into the segue of another question you might have talking about the overview of the company. This tag came out and this tag looks like a regular panel tag except molded in the thinness of the plastic is a thin piece of aluminum foil. And then right in the middle of that aluminum foil is a little Silicon chip, the size of a pinhead. What happens is when you take a device like this and this, this is the antenna, you pull the trigger, it emits energy, not enough to cook a hot dog with, or my brain. It's safe. It emits enough energy. You have very low energy, but a very high frequency. So that means it's sending a lot of signal on a very low energy band to this tag and the antenna in this tag picks up that energy, energizes that chip, and then sends a reflection back to this device, which interprets the unique 15 digit number programmed on this chip. And we can do this now with these devices up to 30 feet, in some instances. That's 30 feet and no battery on a tag that looks like a panel tag.
Malcolm Harvey (12:45):
It's huge. Now, when we first started seven years ago, this device was over $5,000 and this tag was almost six. Now we have, we have a smaller version, but still as good ofa read range. This tag is around $2 and this is about $1,100. And so the, the cost has come down to about the level of where it's going to remain. It might come down another 5% or so in the next few years, but it's, it's pretty cost-effective now. And now we can read these out to, you know, I can't show the range here cause it's out beyond the view of the camera, but these can now be read easily in that 20 to 30-foot range. And we have fixed panel reader systems, which are, are 11-inch square panels instead of these great big three-foot by four-foot panels needed for the low-frequency technology.
It's huge. Now, when we first started seven years ago, this device was over $5,000 and this tag was almost six. Now we have, we have a smaller version, but still as good ofa read range. This tag is around $2 and this is about $1,100. And so the, the cost has come down to about the level of where it's going to remain. It might come down another 5% or so in the next few years, but it's, it's pretty cost-effective now. And now we can read these out to, you know, I can't show the range here cause it's out beyond the view of the camera, but these can now be read easily in that 20 to 30-foot range. And we have fixed panel reader systems, which are, are 11-inch square panels instead of these great big three-foot by four-foot panels needed for the low-frequency technology.
Malcolm Harvey (13:42):
And so when this ultra high-frequency technology came out, it became a very powerful tool for us to take our data collection systems, which we developed around the little low-frequency short read range tags, and now quickly provide a value to all stages of livestock production with this new technology called ultra high frequency. So it's the same thing that the foil is still inside this little narrow piece of plastic. And because it's still a strip tag as we call it, we have a visual aspect to the tag. We put the unique full 15 digit number printed along the side axis, but you have visual access here. And so if in our particular case, we'll put a visual tag in an animal's ear when they're born and they have the old management number style that we use. And then we put the electronic tag in their ear when we brand.
And so when this ultra high-frequency technology came out, it became a very powerful tool for us to take our data collection systems, which we developed around the little low-frequency short read range tags, and now quickly provide a value to all stages of livestock production with this new technology called ultra high frequency. So it's the same thing that the foil is still inside this little narrow piece of plastic. And because it's still a strip tag as we call it, we have a visual aspect to the tag. We put the unique full 15 digit number printed along the side axis, but you have visual access here. And so if in our particular case, we'll put a visual tag in an animal's ear when they're born and they have the old management number style that we use. And then we put the electronic tag in their ear when we brand.
Malcolm Harvey (14:44):
So we don't put these two tags in right when they're born, because we don't want to give more opportunity for the cow to kill us. We put this tag in when the calves are, have been pulled off from the cows. And then we associate that number with the calves' birth number, which is the management number to the cows. Some cases it's actually the cows number because some people write them down that way and now we have a visual double redundancy. So if one tag or the other is lost in our database, we can look up what that animal is still. We don't need to have an electronic tag to look up that animal in our database. Now we can replace those tags if it's management tag and we only have the electronic tag, we can look up what our management number was and put a replacement number in. That's the same number as what was she lost. And so it provides great value to it. So that the background is, is that we've, we've become a value-added company to our peers in the livestock industry looking for ways to collect reasonable data, which will help us drive more profitable decisions in the management of livestock. And so that's a brief overview of our company.
So we don't put these two tags in right when they're born, because we don't want to give more opportunity for the cow to kill us. We put this tag in when the calves are, have been pulled off from the cows. And then we associate that number with the calves' birth number, which is the management number to the cows. Some cases it's actually the cows number because some people write them down that way and now we have a visual double redundancy. So if one tag or the other is lost in our database, we can look up what that animal is still. We don't need to have an electronic tag to look up that animal in our database. Now we can replace those tags if it's management tag and we only have the electronic tag, we can look up what our management number was and put a replacement number in. That's the same number as what was she lost. And so it provides great value to it. So that the background is, is that we've, we've become a value-added company to our peers in the livestock industry looking for ways to collect reasonable data, which will help us drive more profitable decisions in the management of livestock. And so that's a brief overview of our company.
Shaye Koester (16:00):
Well, that is awesome. And thank you for providing those visuals. Now, what about the EID tags that are still the buttons. There are high-frequency ones of those now, correct? That you could read from a larger range?
Well, that is awesome. And thank you for providing those visuals. Now, what about the EID tags that are still the buttons. There are high-frequency ones of those now, correct? That you could read from a larger range?
Malcolm Harvey (16:12):
No, no, no. They're not. The button tags are still exclusively low-frequency we are developing an ultra high-frequency button tag that the challenge is, is that the ultra-high-frequency part of its secret of success is the surface area used in the antenna. And so if you take that surface area and go down to a quarter of this size, you minimize the amount of energy that can be picked up by some external device like this, so it shortens the read range. So the fun thing is on a button tag where we can't get 10 to 30 feet, we might be able to get three to five feet, which is still double or triple what a low-frequency tag can do. Right? And so there are instances where button tags still might be beneficial in most instances, especially where we're dealing with feed yards and backgrounders. They still want to be able to read animals four, five or six abreast going down a 16-foot alley. And for that, you're going to need a tag like this, not a button tag, but for sheep and goats and pigs you know, and in, in dairy, the ultra high-frequency button tag works really well. And it would work well in an auction environment where they choke the animals down to three or four abreast instead of five or six abreast.
No, no, no. They're not. The button tags are still exclusively low-frequency we are developing an ultra high-frequency button tag that the challenge is, is that the ultra-high-frequency part of its secret of success is the surface area used in the antenna. And so if you take that surface area and go down to a quarter of this size, you minimize the amount of energy that can be picked up by some external device like this, so it shortens the read range. So the fun thing is on a button tag where we can't get 10 to 30 feet, we might be able to get three to five feet, which is still double or triple what a low-frequency tag can do. Right? And so there are instances where button tags still might be beneficial in most instances, especially where we're dealing with feed yards and backgrounders. They still want to be able to read animals four, five or six abreast going down a 16-foot alley. And for that, you're going to need a tag like this, not a button tag, but for sheep and goats and pigs you know, and in, in dairy, the ultra high-frequency button tag works really well. And it would work well in an auction environment where they choke the animals down to three or four abreast instead of five or six abreast.
Shaye Koester (17:42):
Okay, so you have the tag and you have your reader, and then after it reads that, where does that information go? Or where do the producers go to enter information on cows? For example "Y26 was vaccinated with this on this day." Where to producers go to access that or enter more data?
Okay, so you have the tag and you have your reader, and then after it reads that, where does that information go? Or where do the producers go to enter information on cows? For example "Y26 was vaccinated with this on this day." Where to producers go to access that or enter more data?
Malcolm Harvey (18:00):
Very good question. So the there are a bunch of tools that we've learned to leverage and we've interfaced with. So we have our smartphone you know, whether it's an apple or an Android, whatever model it is, our application will run on those smartphones and interface with these readers. Now, the key aspect is, is that for every stage of livestock production, there's a little bit different requirement of what the livestock producer needs to garner that data. So when you're out calving, you don't want to have this in a great big tablet, because you've already got a tagger and you've got syringes. You've got a stick to beat off the cow. And so you don't want to have this other stuff around. And so for our calving application, we recommend just using the smartphone that you already have in your pocket with their application on it.
Very good question. So the there are a bunch of tools that we've learned to leverage and we've interfaced with. So we have our smartphone you know, whether it's an apple or an Android, whatever model it is, our application will run on those smartphones and interface with these readers. Now, the key aspect is, is that for every stage of livestock production, there's a little bit different requirement of what the livestock producer needs to garner that data. So when you're out calving, you don't want to have this in a great big tablet, because you've already got a tagger and you've got syringes. You've got a stick to beat off the cow. And so you don't want to have this other stuff around. And so for our calving application, we recommend just using the smartphone that you already have in your pocket with their application on it.
Malcolm Harvey (18:56):
It works offline. So you don't need to have cellular connectivity and you type in the visual number of the cow. You don't need the full 15 digit number. You don't even need her electronic number. You just type in her visual management number. You're putting a visual management tag in the calf. You put that number in, and then if you want to record the sex or you want to record weather, or you want to record any treatment of that animal, you can do all that on your phone. That's already in your pocket that you're already acclimated as to keeping charged and protected, right? You have a fault. If your phone falls out of your pocket, you stop the whole works and you go look for your phone, right? And so the calving operation works on this device, very minimal number of fields of data, all of this data, that's on your phone.
It works offline. So you don't need to have cellular connectivity and you type in the visual number of the cow. You don't need the full 15 digit number. You don't even need her electronic number. You just type in her visual management number. You're putting a visual management tag in the calf. You put that number in, and then if you want to record the sex or you want to record weather, or you want to record any treatment of that animal, you can do all that on your phone. That's already in your pocket that you're already acclimated as to keeping charged and protected, right? You have a fault. If your phone falls out of your pocket, you stop the whole works and you go look for your phone, right? And so the calving operation works on this device, very minimal number of fields of data, all of this data, that's on your phone.
Malcolm Harvey (19:47):
Then as soon as you have cellular connectivity, or you go back to the ranch house and you have wifi, like where I'm at here, that phone will automatically connect up to your account in the cloud. Very much analogous to what we do with our banking. I don't know if you do it now, but I do my banking on my mobile phone. It connects up. When I come back and I want to see it on a bigger screen and manage more fields, I log in on my computer. Our livestock data runs the same way. Run it on your phone, runs up locally, connects to your cloud account that you can log into with your secure username and password. And from there, you can manage your data. Now, if I'm calving and I'm doing the calving today, and then I have to go down to town for something, and my brother goes out through the herd and he sees that, oh, I've got a calf kicking it at side, it looks like it's got perfringens.
Then as soon as you have cellular connectivity, or you go back to the ranch house and you have wifi, like where I'm at here, that phone will automatically connect up to your account in the cloud. Very much analogous to what we do with our banking. I don't know if you do it now, but I do my banking on my mobile phone. It connects up. When I come back and I want to see it on a bigger screen and manage more fields, I log in on my computer. Our livestock data runs the same way. Run it on your phone, runs up locally, connects to your cloud account that you can log into with your secure username and password. And from there, you can manage your data. Now, if I'm calving and I'm doing the calving today, and then I have to go down to town for something, and my brother goes out through the herd and he sees that, oh, I've got a calf kicking it at side, it looks like it's got perfringens.
Malcolm Harvey (20:45):
I need to treat it with a shot in the abdomen and penicillin down the throat, and an esophageal feed with some Biomass in it. He can pull up that calf's number on his phone, even though it was recorded on mine, his phone will have synced to the account and have all of that calves, birth information, the cows information, and any previous treatment information on his phone, even though it was originally on mine. So we no longer have to pass hardware around. We don't have to pass paper notebooks around it all synchronizes. He can record his treatment. And then tomorrow, when I come back, I'll go look up that calf, find out where it was at and say, Hey, it's either a dead or like what we've had this year we've been really blessed that they've been very responsive to the different treatments and Hey, it's looking good.
I need to treat it with a shot in the abdomen and penicillin down the throat, and an esophageal feed with some Biomass in it. He can pull up that calf's number on his phone, even though it was recorded on mine, his phone will have synced to the account and have all of that calves, birth information, the cows information, and any previous treatment information on his phone, even though it was originally on mine. So we no longer have to pass hardware around. We don't have to pass paper notebooks around it all synchronizes. He can record his treatment. And then tomorrow, when I come back, I'll go look up that calf, find out where it was at and say, Hey, it's either a dead or like what we've had this year we've been really blessed that they've been very responsive to the different treatments and Hey, it's looking good.
Malcolm Harvey (21:36):
The treatment worked. So we diagnosed the calf correctly. So that's, that's when you're out. That's when you're out calving some, some device like that, when your side we've got the benefit of a ruggedized tablet and these tablets are also extremely cost-effective, they've come down about half the price of what they were when we started selling tablets. And now with an eight-inch tablet screen chute side, I can have bigger print. I have longer battery life. It's waterproof, it's drop resistant, and it connects with these devices, or if I have a fixed stationary reader, if I'm a larger producer. And so now I can type in all this information, same kind of a thing. As soon as it has cellular connectivity or wifi, that information goes up to the cloud. And if it sees that, that number for that animal, either the visual or the electronic number is already in the database, it will append this additional information to that, which is already in the database so that you're not having to tick and tie things together on an Excel spreadsheet late at night, when you're already tired. And you still got to get up early in the morning to do other ranch stuff. So it, it's, it's a very efficient way of, of being able to collect the data and allow the livestock producers to manage that data.
The treatment worked. So we diagnosed the calf correctly. So that's, that's when you're out. That's when you're out calving some, some device like that, when your side we've got the benefit of a ruggedized tablet and these tablets are also extremely cost-effective, they've come down about half the price of what they were when we started selling tablets. And now with an eight-inch tablet screen chute side, I can have bigger print. I have longer battery life. It's waterproof, it's drop resistant, and it connects with these devices, or if I have a fixed stationary reader, if I'm a larger producer. And so now I can type in all this information, same kind of a thing. As soon as it has cellular connectivity or wifi, that information goes up to the cloud. And if it sees that, that number for that animal, either the visual or the electronic number is already in the database, it will append this additional information to that, which is already in the database so that you're not having to tick and tie things together on an Excel spreadsheet late at night, when you're already tired. And you still got to get up early in the morning to do other ranch stuff. So it, it's, it's a very efficient way of, of being able to collect the data and allow the livestock producers to manage that data.
Shaye Koester (23:01):
Now, that is clear, you said it's more ruggedized, waterproof, drop resistance, all those things. But if we're producers who already have, say an iPad that they like to use, would that software still sync to that?
Now, that is clear, you said it's more ruggedized, waterproof, drop resistance, all those things. But if we're producers who already have, say an iPad that they like to use, would that software still sync to that?
Malcolm Harvey (23:15):
On the large version portion of this,,an Ipad will not, but on the cow/calf side, it will work on apple products. Right now, the chute side application is only working on Android, Apple locks down a lot of their data systems. So we're still trying to work around how we do that on the larger apple devices now on the apple computers at home, it's not a problem because we work in a web browser, but on this particular chute side application that doesn't work in a web browser. It right now only works in an Android-based app.
On the large version portion of this,,an Ipad will not, but on the cow/calf side, it will work on apple products. Right now, the chute side application is only working on Android, Apple locks down a lot of their data systems. So we're still trying to work around how we do that on the larger apple devices now on the apple computers at home, it's not a problem because we work in a web browser, but on this particular chute side application that doesn't work in a web browser. It right now only works in an Android-based app.
Shaye Koester (23:53):
Okay. Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to explain about how the EID system works once it's already implemented
Okay. Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to explain about how the EID system works once it's already implemented
Shaye Koester (24:11):
Well, we can go over both, but since we're on the technological side, is there anything else technologically you'd like to explain?
Well, we can go over both, but since we're on the technological side, is there anything else technologically you'd like to explain?
Malcolm Harvey (24:18):
I think the biggest thing to recognize for our audience is that there are two different kinds of, of radio frequency identification. There's a kind called passive, which does not require a battery and is always denoted by the thinness of the tag. Okay. Now the little round button is also passive. It doesn't, it's, it's thicker, but that's because it has a copper coil in it, but it does not have a battery. And so anything that has a battery in it, like our phone is called an active device because it's actively, without any other external power it's actively transmitting out. There are a number of companies and we tried it ourselves early on, as I mentioned earlier, who are developing battery powered tags that do all sorts of things. They claim they have little, a three axis accelerometers in them. So they can tell when the cow is calving or when it's being bred or when it's coughing.
I think the biggest thing to recognize for our audience is that there are two different kinds of, of radio frequency identification. There's a kind called passive, which does not require a battery and is always denoted by the thinness of the tag. Okay. Now the little round button is also passive. It doesn't, it's, it's thicker, but that's because it has a copper coil in it, but it does not have a battery. And so anything that has a battery in it, like our phone is called an active device because it's actively, without any other external power it's actively transmitting out. There are a number of companies and we tried it ourselves early on, as I mentioned earlier, who are developing battery powered tags that do all sorts of things. They claim they have little, a three axis accelerometers in them. So they can tell when the cow is calving or when it's being bred or when it's coughing.
Malcolm Harvey (25:25):
But all of those currently require a battery, which jacks, the price up. And some of these, all these companies has said, well, in high volume, we can get that price down to $15 a tag, but still at $15 a tag that's a lot of money and the tags are all throw away. They have once they've reached their finite life, which is usually about 18 months to 24 months, you chuck the whole tag and you have to start over again right now, these tags are like a regular visual tag. You know, when you get them down to about $2 mark, you still throw these tags away. But now we're talking about a cost investment value proposition of $2, not $15 a head. And that's huge in or our industry. So these are passive and as I mentioned earlier, this is the device that's emanating out what's called electromagnetic radiation. It's in, very low power. It's less energy than what our cell phones emanate. When we put them up on our cell phones, outdoor ed, and then that's being received by this tag and then reflecting it back to this device. So the biggest thing to be aware of in our industry is that if it's one of these kinds of tags, like I'm showing you here, ask the the solicitor, if it has a battery, and if it has a battery in it, I would be glad to talk to anyone and explain to them in more detail, why the batteries are a liability, not an asset for us as livestock managers. So that's the basics. It's not magic. It cannot be read by a satellite. It cannot be read by a black Hawk helicopter flying over, which was one of the concerns that came out in the early days of the national animal ID system with the low frequency tags. So these are a very much a localized terrestrial based technology that the USDA, well the USDA they're not as nefarious as we'd like to make them out to be, but any other nefarious federal agency that might want to get involved with us can't, can't read these tags unless they come on our property and get within 30 feet of our animals.
But all of those currently require a battery, which jacks, the price up. And some of these, all these companies has said, well, in high volume, we can get that price down to $15 a tag, but still at $15 a tag that's a lot of money and the tags are all throw away. They have once they've reached their finite life, which is usually about 18 months to 24 months, you chuck the whole tag and you have to start over again right now, these tags are like a regular visual tag. You know, when you get them down to about $2 mark, you still throw these tags away. But now we're talking about a cost investment value proposition of $2, not $15 a head. And that's huge in or our industry. So these are passive and as I mentioned earlier, this is the device that's emanating out what's called electromagnetic radiation. It's in, very low power. It's less energy than what our cell phones emanate. When we put them up on our cell phones, outdoor ed, and then that's being received by this tag and then reflecting it back to this device. So the biggest thing to be aware of in our industry is that if it's one of these kinds of tags, like I'm showing you here, ask the the solicitor, if it has a battery, and if it has a battery in it, I would be glad to talk to anyone and explain to them in more detail, why the batteries are a liability, not an asset for us as livestock managers. So that's the basics. It's not magic. It cannot be read by a satellite. It cannot be read by a black Hawk helicopter flying over, which was one of the concerns that came out in the early days of the national animal ID system with the low frequency tags. So these are a very much a localized terrestrial based technology that the USDA, well the USDA they're not as nefarious as we'd like to make them out to be, but any other nefarious federal agency that might want to get involved with us can't, can't read these tags unless they come on our property and get within 30 feet of our animals.
Shaye Koester (27:45):
Okay. Yeah. So with that, so say producers are interested in implementing this technology on their operation. What are some things they need to look at to make sure that they're still getting an ROI on it, for, you know, their specific type of operation, how many head they have? What do those numbers look like?
Okay. Yeah. So with that, so say producers are interested in implementing this technology on their operation. What are some things they need to look at to make sure that they're still getting an ROI on it, for, you know, their specific type of operation, how many head they have? What do those numbers look like?
Malcolm Harvey (28:07):
Outstanding point you bring up because we work off the premise that you can only improve what you measure. So for example our hay crop, we measure, we record how many bales come off of different segments of each parcel of our hay meadows, because that determines how well we watered what kind of fertilizer we put on and what the weather that summer did to generate that hay. And so that drives improvement on how we manage in the subsequent year. So many of the ranchers, even in our area here they say, "Well, you know, I don't need to have an electronic tag to tell me what my cows doing. I can look at her and see what her body condition is. If she doesn't come off the summer forest the US forest ground with a calf, and then she's not worth keeping around and I'll ship her."
Outstanding point you bring up because we work off the premise that you can only improve what you measure. So for example our hay crop, we measure, we record how many bales come off of different segments of each parcel of our hay meadows, because that determines how well we watered what kind of fertilizer we put on and what the weather that summer did to generate that hay. And so that drives improvement on how we manage in the subsequent year. So many of the ranchers, even in our area here they say, "Well, you know, I don't need to have an electronic tag to tell me what my cows doing. I can look at her and see what her body condition is. If she doesn't come off the summer forest the US forest ground with a calf, and then she's not worth keeping around and I'll ship her."
Malcolm Harvey (29:05):
And there's a lot of good, basic information that we've used for years like that. We're now into the phase where with this kind of technology where we can accurately identify the animal, when it comes through the chute in subsequent times, when we process, we can start developing additional metrics and additional values that will allow us to improve our herd. So for example, instead of having to eyeball how good that calf was coming off, the cow, we now and this is new in the last seven years for our ranch, we have to vaccinate our calves twice a year in order to qualify for the best price on the video auction that we use, right. We only used to vaccinate once in the spring and then we'd ship our calves in the fall and they were done. Now because the buyer is requesting that we vaccinate three weeks before we ship. We have to bring the whole herd in again and work the whole herd that we never used to do before. And we thought, well, you know, that's, that's the benefit to the, to the buyer of the cattle. What else can we do? And so we put scales on our 30-year-old squeeze chute. And now we weigh the calves that we're vaccinating. So we take five extra seconds per animal to weigh the calf. We know its birth date. We don't have its birth weight, but we just put a nominal 85 pounds birth weight. But because we know its birth date and we know its weaning weight, we can now get a growth factor on that calf that ties directly back to that cow. Well, I guess in fairness, half of it's the bull, but most of the time when you look at the cow's performance over two or three years, because we do natural breeding, you can get an idea.
And there's a lot of good, basic information that we've used for years like that. We're now into the phase where with this kind of technology where we can accurately identify the animal, when it comes through the chute in subsequent times, when we process, we can start developing additional metrics and additional values that will allow us to improve our herd. So for example, instead of having to eyeball how good that calf was coming off, the cow, we now and this is new in the last seven years for our ranch, we have to vaccinate our calves twice a year in order to qualify for the best price on the video auction that we use, right. We only used to vaccinate once in the spring and then we'd ship our calves in the fall and they were done. Now because the buyer is requesting that we vaccinate three weeks before we ship. We have to bring the whole herd in again and work the whole herd that we never used to do before. And we thought, well, you know, that's, that's the benefit to the, to the buyer of the cattle. What else can we do? And so we put scales on our 30-year-old squeeze chute. And now we weigh the calves that we're vaccinating. So we take five extra seconds per animal to weigh the calf. We know its birth date. We don't have its birth weight, but we just put a nominal 85 pounds birth weight. But because we know its birth date and we know its weaning weight, we can now get a growth factor on that calf that ties directly back to that cow. Well, I guess in fairness, half of it's the bull, but most of the time when you look at the cow's performance over two or three years, because we do natural breeding, you can get an idea.
Malcolm Harvey (30:57):
And then you combine that with the udder score of the cow and the weight of the cow, because we bring all the cows through and we preg check them that same time we weigh the cows. And now we have a rate a weight ratio between the cow and the calf. And we can develop now a metric and say, "Hey, that cow, she looks like skin and bones, but she's not skin and bones because her teeth are bad. She's skin and bones because she put it into a 680-pound calf. And we want to keep her cause she puts everything back into her calf, right?" So as long as she's otherwise healthy, and now that's a quantifiable metric that dad would have shipped that cow before because she was all bones. But over three years, she's consistently in the top quartile, the top 25% of the average daily weight, gaining of those calves, she's a keeper.
And then you combine that with the udder score of the cow and the weight of the cow, because we bring all the cows through and we preg check them that same time we weigh the cows. And now we have a rate a weight ratio between the cow and the calf. And we can develop now a metric and say, "Hey, that cow, she looks like skin and bones, but she's not skin and bones because her teeth are bad. She's skin and bones because she put it into a 680-pound calf. And we want to keep her cause she puts everything back into her calf, right?" So as long as she's otherwise healthy, and now that's a quantifiable metric that dad would have shipped that cow before because she was all bones. But over three years, she's consistently in the top quartile, the top 25% of the average daily weight, gaining of those calves, she's a keeper.
Malcolm Harvey (31:50):
And we want to keep any heifers that come off of her because she's got the kinds of genes that converts her grass into pounds, shipping out to the feed yard. That's the lowest hanging fruit of this technology. And so, yes, you don't really need to have electronic tags to do that, but you do need to have a data collection system that can grab that information that's deemed important quickly and accurately chute side so that you can then assess that quickly and accurately later. We don't want to spend a lot of time crunching numbers. We spend a lot of time doing other things on the ranch. We want to spend time analyzing the benefits of which animals we keep and which animals we ship. That is the fundamental benefit of system. These tags are not the magic in and of themselves.
And we want to keep any heifers that come off of her because she's got the kinds of genes that converts her grass into pounds, shipping out to the feed yard. That's the lowest hanging fruit of this technology. And so, yes, you don't really need to have electronic tags to do that, but you do need to have a data collection system that can grab that information that's deemed important quickly and accurately chute side so that you can then assess that quickly and accurately later. We don't want to spend a lot of time crunching numbers. We spend a lot of time doing other things on the ranch. We want to spend time analyzing the benefits of which animals we keep and which animals we ship. That is the fundamental benefit of system. These tags are not the magic in and of themselves.
Malcolm Harvey (32:45):
It's the three-stage process of accurate identification, whether it's visual or electronic data collection accurate and fast, and then data management. And that's the triad that we focus on as a complete solution and have various configurations for each stage of the livestock production chain that works best for them. So for example, in a feed yard, they don't use these. We have fixed-position readers because those animals come in and they're coming in daily. They don't want to have anything else. They don't need anything mobile and portable like this. We have a fixed reader and automatically dumps into their database. If they want to put any attributes of what they've treated the animals with, vaccines they might've given them or, body condition scores of the animal, then they can add that onto it. But it's, it's a different configuration than what we have when we're out there calving. And we don't even do electronic tags. We just use the computer in our pocket to make use of capturing initial information on the animal.
It's the three-stage process of accurate identification, whether it's visual or electronic data collection accurate and fast, and then data management. And that's the triad that we focus on as a complete solution and have various configurations for each stage of the livestock production chain that works best for them. So for example, in a feed yard, they don't use these. We have fixed-position readers because those animals come in and they're coming in daily. They don't want to have anything else. They don't need anything mobile and portable like this. We have a fixed reader and automatically dumps into their database. If they want to put any attributes of what they've treated the animals with, vaccines they might've given them or, body condition scores of the animal, then they can add that onto it. But it's, it's a different configuration than what we have when we're out there calving. And we don't even do electronic tags. We just use the computer in our pocket to make use of capturing initial information on the animal.
Shaye Koester (33:58):
Well, that is awesome and thank you for sharing that. So what does the implementation process look like when you begin working with a rancher who wants to start purchasing these and putting them in the herd?
Well, that is awesome and thank you for sharing that. So what does the implementation process look like when you begin working with a rancher who wants to start purchasing these and putting them in the herd?
Malcolm Harvey (34:12):
We firmly believe in the, keep it simple principle. So, the first thing that happens for a rancher is getting them set up with just the, the smartphone application so that they're identifying the cow to the calf with the current tag technology that they're already using. If the rancher already has a smartphone, then they're 90% up the learning curve because they've already learned how to interface with the touch screen device. When we started this business 16 years ago, we had to teach people how to interface with the touch screen device that's been done for us. So start with the simple data collection right up front, take your paper, your paper notebook, and convert it into an electronic notebook. And start there once you have that down, then the questions start self revealing to the rancher going like, well, wow, what if, what if I could do this?
We firmly believe in the, keep it simple principle. So, the first thing that happens for a rancher is getting them set up with just the, the smartphone application so that they're identifying the cow to the calf with the current tag technology that they're already using. If the rancher already has a smartphone, then they're 90% up the learning curve because they've already learned how to interface with the touch screen device. When we started this business 16 years ago, we had to teach people how to interface with the touch screen device that's been done for us. So start with the simple data collection right up front, take your paper, your paper notebook, and convert it into an electronic notebook. And start there once you have that down, then the questions start self revealing to the rancher going like, well, wow, what if, what if I could do this?
Malcolm Harvey (35:14):
What if I could read the animal in the chute or in the alley with, with a handheld reader? That's the, that's the next value? And so we say, well, the implementation is don't tag this when they're born. Tag the calves when you're branding or vaccinating, you know, six, eight weeks later. Now you've got the redundancy, you've got it tagged into yourself. These tags are also of great value to third-party certification companies. So we're working with companies like IMI global and Samson who have approved these tags now for their third-party certification. Whether it's non-hormone treated compliant cattle ,age and source, or natural organic these tags are now compliant for those kinds of value-added programs. So really the answer to your question is for each individual user is to write down the top two or three things that you think you could benefit from if you had more information and then let us counsel with you on what tools would make the most sense for your operation. Once you've realized the benefit of the top two or three things that are on your list, then you will start realizing through your own discovery and talking with your neighbors. "Wow, what if I did this? What if I put a scale on my squeeze chute? What if I tried to get a premium out of NHTC? You know, what if, what if the key thing is we can only improve what we can measure and this, this kind of technology enables that measuring because of its accurate means of identification of the animal?"
What if I could read the animal in the chute or in the alley with, with a handheld reader? That's the, that's the next value? And so we say, well, the implementation is don't tag this when they're born. Tag the calves when you're branding or vaccinating, you know, six, eight weeks later. Now you've got the redundancy, you've got it tagged into yourself. These tags are also of great value to third-party certification companies. So we're working with companies like IMI global and Samson who have approved these tags now for their third-party certification. Whether it's non-hormone treated compliant cattle ,age and source, or natural organic these tags are now compliant for those kinds of value-added programs. So really the answer to your question is for each individual user is to write down the top two or three things that you think you could benefit from if you had more information and then let us counsel with you on what tools would make the most sense for your operation. Once you've realized the benefit of the top two or three things that are on your list, then you will start realizing through your own discovery and talking with your neighbors. "Wow, what if I did this? What if I put a scale on my squeeze chute? What if I tried to get a premium out of NHTC? You know, what if, what if the key thing is we can only improve what we can measure and this, this kind of technology enables that measuring because of its accurate means of identification of the animal?"
Shaye Koester (37:03):
Well, absolutely. So what are some mistakes you see producers make when they go into implementing this technology?
Well, absolutely. So what are some mistakes you see producers make when they go into implementing this technology?
Malcolm Harvey (37:12):
It's dovetail with what I just said. We try to do too much at once. I don't know any of any of you if you're a Trekkie, but there's the Trekkie when Scotty comes back in time and he tries to speak to a desktop computer and he says, computer, you know, show me this and the computer doesn't respond to him, right? So we're still not to the age in Star Trek where you can speak to your computer and have it execute the commands. And so that's, it's important that we start simple and then we grow into the expectations versus having too many expectations and then being frustrated because we're not used to doing it that new way. It's kind of like driving John Deere tractors all your life, and then buying an international harvester tractor. Everything's in a little bit different place. You can figure it out ultimately, but maybe not until you've pounded your fist on the steering wheel a few times wondering why these engineers put it in a different place.
It's dovetail with what I just said. We try to do too much at once. I don't know any of any of you if you're a Trekkie, but there's the Trekkie when Scotty comes back in time and he tries to speak to a desktop computer and he says, computer, you know, show me this and the computer doesn't respond to him, right? So we're still not to the age in Star Trek where you can speak to your computer and have it execute the commands. And so that's, it's important that we start simple and then we grow into the expectations versus having too many expectations and then being frustrated because we're not used to doing it that new way. It's kind of like driving John Deere tractors all your life, and then buying an international harvester tractor. Everything's in a little bit different place. You can figure it out ultimately, but maybe not until you've pounded your fist on the steering wheel a few times wondering why these engineers put it in a different place.
Shaye Koester (38:12):
Right. So do you, I mean, obviously you've talked about how much you work with ranchers, but how much do you work with say the feedlot industry or work with packing plants with this technology?
Right. So do you, I mean, obviously you've talked about how much you work with ranchers, but how much do you work with say the feedlot industry or work with packing plants with this technology?
Malcolm Harvey (38:28):
Thank you. Our solution is to run the complete gamut. In fact right now, one of our priorities is getting all of the packers or a large share of those packers tooled up to be able to automatically read all drive frequency tags. Some of them, many of them, not nearly all of them have the low-frequency capability, but we've developed a unique technology, which will allow the packers to read both the low-frequency tag and the ultra-high frequency. It's what we call the dual tracker system. So we're putting in two, a week and packers across the United States, have these dual tracker systems, so that a producer, a background or a feedlot, doesn't have to worry about which packer their animals go to. If they only have this tag we're going to have, we're going to have 80% of the capacity of the packer capacity tooled up with this technology by the end of the year.
Thank you. Our solution is to run the complete gamut. In fact right now, one of our priorities is getting all of the packers or a large share of those packers tooled up to be able to automatically read all drive frequency tags. Some of them, many of them, not nearly all of them have the low-frequency capability, but we've developed a unique technology, which will allow the packers to read both the low-frequency tag and the ultra-high frequency. It's what we call the dual tracker system. So we're putting in two, a week and packers across the United States, have these dual tracker systems, so that a producer, a background or a feedlot, doesn't have to worry about which packer their animals go to. If they only have this tag we're going to have, we're going to have 80% of the capacity of the packer capacity tooled up with this technology by the end of the year.
Malcolm Harvey (39:24):
It's phenomenal. And then, so stepping back when we look at the feedyards, then we're the primary supplier. And in fact, we're the reason why an organization called US Cattletrace got going because of the ultra-high-frequency tags. Our pilot programs in 2015, gave the information to the Kansas livestock association to enable them to vote unanimously for an ultra high-frequency traceability system, a privately driven traceability system, which was then called the Kansas Cattletrace system. It got remarketed as the US Cattletrace system, largely due to the efforts of Fort Supply, which has these, these UHF systems in auctions in Virginia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. So that data from those systems with the permission of both parties was fed back into the US and the Kansas Cattletrace system. And because it expanded so greatly, they rebranded to the US Cattletrace system.
It's phenomenal. And then, so stepping back when we look at the feedyards, then we're the primary supplier. And in fact, we're the reason why an organization called US Cattletrace got going because of the ultra-high-frequency tags. Our pilot programs in 2015, gave the information to the Kansas livestock association to enable them to vote unanimously for an ultra high-frequency traceability system, a privately driven traceability system, which was then called the Kansas Cattletrace system. It got remarketed as the US Cattletrace system, largely due to the efforts of Fort Supply, which has these, these UHF systems in auctions in Virginia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Kentucky. So that data from those systems with the permission of both parties was fed back into the US and the Kansas Cattletrace system. And because it expanded so greatly, they rebranded to the US Cattletrace system.
Malcolm Harvey (40:33):
So we have unique solutions that work at the packer, at the feed yards, at the auction, at the backgrounder and all the way to the producer. So it's a complete system that can be independent in their data management and as different parties along this production chain agree that data can be connected together so that one day the epitome of what we're trying to get after the, the poor producer can get carcass data from the packer, if all parties down the line, agree to that, we'll do that. Now in between that offer the, after the big five packers, there's, there's a groundswell of other large private based packers who are building systems right now, building packing operations and production chains, to be able to provide that value back to the producers and we're working with the big five, as well as all these, these new startups to get this data system in, and then show people that, that connectivity is easy. It's secure, it's protected, and it can be private. And that's the beauty of the Kansas Cattletrace system is that they're not trying to, they're not trying to garner production systems or production data. They only need to know where that animal was, read what the 15 digit number was, the date it was read, and that's the only data. So if there's a disease outbreak that pops up or a diagnosis at a packer, they can immediately go into their private database, not a federal database and research where has that animal been, because it's automatically being read every time it moves. And because they, again, they're private that, that data is, it remains confidential to them and the organization that runs them, which is a livestock association. And it becomes now a protection to the industry when we have our next major disease outbreak in bovine.
So we have unique solutions that work at the packer, at the feed yards, at the auction, at the backgrounder and all the way to the producer. So it's a complete system that can be independent in their data management and as different parties along this production chain agree that data can be connected together so that one day the epitome of what we're trying to get after the, the poor producer can get carcass data from the packer, if all parties down the line, agree to that, we'll do that. Now in between that offer the, after the big five packers, there's, there's a groundswell of other large private based packers who are building systems right now, building packing operations and production chains, to be able to provide that value back to the producers and we're working with the big five, as well as all these, these new startups to get this data system in, and then show people that, that connectivity is easy. It's secure, it's protected, and it can be private. And that's the beauty of the Kansas Cattletrace system is that they're not trying to, they're not trying to garner production systems or production data. They only need to know where that animal was, read what the 15 digit number was, the date it was read, and that's the only data. So if there's a disease outbreak that pops up or a diagnosis at a packer, they can immediately go into their private database, not a federal database and research where has that animal been, because it's automatically being read every time it moves. And because they, again, they're private that, that data is, it remains confidential to them and the organization that runs them, which is a livestock association. And it becomes now a protection to the industry when we have our next major disease outbreak in bovine.
Shaye Koester (42:44):
Well, absolutely. And thank you for sharing that. Is there anything else you would like to share about anything we covered today?
Well, absolutely. And thank you for sharing that. Is there anything else you would like to share about anything we covered today?
Malcolm Harvey (42:55):
One of the one of the key things that I think our audience needs to be made aware of is that the USDA is in a quiet period after all the tumultuous time of, of, you know, a year and a half ago, they said by January 2023, they were going to require some form of electronic ID, that round button or an ultra frequency tag to be in all required animals on official interstate commerce, right? Under 18 months of age is still an exclusion, but any, any commuter herds, any other cattle, January, 2023, was going to be a required date for having an official ID. I don't know if you remember that, right. They backed down on that because there was so much pushback. Well, they've been doing they've been doing listening sessions for about a year, and we have very high probability information from the USDA that by this fall and they just issued a new ruling saying they were going to come out with their information this fall. By this fall, they're going to, re-institute the January 2023 deadline and so for those of us producers that already have an electronic tag, we will already be compliant with the forthcoming federal regulatory aspect. So we've been talking about all of the value perspective. One of the value requirements is a very high probability going to be that we're going to have to have an electronic tag for all sexually intact livestock, over 18 months of age, going across interstate lines. So, you know, now's a good time to get used to it find the value in it so that when this is made mandatory we're spending more time making money on it, then grousing, why the USDA shoved it down our throat again.
One of the one of the key things that I think our audience needs to be made aware of is that the USDA is in a quiet period after all the tumultuous time of, of, you know, a year and a half ago, they said by January 2023, they were going to require some form of electronic ID, that round button or an ultra frequency tag to be in all required animals on official interstate commerce, right? Under 18 months of age is still an exclusion, but any, any commuter herds, any other cattle, January, 2023, was going to be a required date for having an official ID. I don't know if you remember that, right. They backed down on that because there was so much pushback. Well, they've been doing they've been doing listening sessions for about a year, and we have very high probability information from the USDA that by this fall and they just issued a new ruling saying they were going to come out with their information this fall. By this fall, they're going to, re-institute the January 2023 deadline and so for those of us producers that already have an electronic tag, we will already be compliant with the forthcoming federal regulatory aspect. So we've been talking about all of the value perspective. One of the value requirements is a very high probability going to be that we're going to have to have an electronic tag for all sexually intact livestock, over 18 months of age, going across interstate lines. So, you know, now's a good time to get used to it find the value in it so that when this is made mandatory we're spending more time making money on it, then grousing, why the USDA shoved it down our throat again.
Malcolm Harvey (45:05):
And so there, there, there are some things, you know, some battles that we fight and we win other battles like this one. I don't know if we can win it. You know, the USDA has been pushing this hard for 20 years. The difference between now and 20 years ago is that the industry has come up with a way to use the radio frequency identification, to provide value and safety and security in our product, in our own sphere of influence and all, by the way, we can give a very narrow section of that data and not all of it, but just the important, very narrow band of that data to the USDA to make them feel compliant with their traceability disease protection rules.
And so there, there, there are some things, you know, some battles that we fight and we win other battles like this one. I don't know if we can win it. You know, the USDA has been pushing this hard for 20 years. The difference between now and 20 years ago is that the industry has come up with a way to use the radio frequency identification, to provide value and safety and security in our product, in our own sphere of influence and all, by the way, we can give a very narrow section of that data and not all of it, but just the important, very narrow band of that data to the USDA to make them feel compliant with their traceability disease protection rules.
Shaye Koester (45:58):
With that, the only other thing that I wanted to mention is that Fort Supply, we're very proud to say that we're partnered up with a company called True Ranches. In January of this year, they put a sizable investment into Ford Supply Technologies. It was a great acknowledgment to validate what our other investors had done with us over the years. True Ranches is headquartered out of Casper, Wyoming. They're very active in the livestock industry. They're investing in packing plants. They have their own feedyard in Eastern Wyoming and so that's where we're developing some additional value added products, which we bring to the market. One of which, because of this tag, we can now detect sickness one to two days before a pen rider in a feedyard and that's all because of the way the animal changes its behavior around a waterhole.
With that, the only other thing that I wanted to mention is that Fort Supply, we're very proud to say that we're partnered up with a company called True Ranches. In January of this year, they put a sizable investment into Ford Supply Technologies. It was a great acknowledgment to validate what our other investors had done with us over the years. True Ranches is headquartered out of Casper, Wyoming. They're very active in the livestock industry. They're investing in packing plants. They have their own feedyard in Eastern Wyoming and so that's where we're developing some additional value added products, which we bring to the market. One of which, because of this tag, we can now detect sickness one to two days before a pen rider in a feedyard and that's all because of the way the animal changes its behavior around a waterhole.
Malcolm Harvey (46:56):
And we measure how many times they come to the waterhole, how long they they linger there and our version of artificial intelligence, it gives a notification to the pen rider, but via email that, Hey, this animal is showing early signs of sickness, pull it out the hospital now, and you'll save yourself, you know 50, $60 heavy duty antibiotics versus if you'd waited until it was so lethargic that you couldn't treat it anymore. And it was untreatable. So there's a bunch of things that we can do with this tag and this technology to provide value to the industry. And we're excited and glad to be a part of it both as producers and as technology solution providers.
Well, awesome. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to visit with me and share this information with the audience that this will be going out to.
And we measure how many times they come to the waterhole, how long they they linger there and our version of artificial intelligence, it gives a notification to the pen rider, but via email that, Hey, this animal is showing early signs of sickness, pull it out the hospital now, and you'll save yourself, you know 50, $60 heavy duty antibiotics versus if you'd waited until it was so lethargic that you couldn't treat it anymore. And it was untreatable. So there's a bunch of things that we can do with this tag and this technology to provide value to the industry. And we're excited and glad to be a part of it both as producers and as technology solution providers.
And that's a wrap on that one. Thank you for tuning in and listening to another episode, but thank you, Malcolm, for really sharing your insight, advice, and story about how EIDs are a beneficial technology for producers, for improving management practices and really keeping things organized as far as data and information. Now, remember to go give me a follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. And if, like I said, if you're interested in actually seeing this process and seeing Malcolm explain, please go to my YouTube channel, or also on my social media accounts, where there will be a link to the video posted where you can watch Malcolm, explain how this technology works and how information is transferred. But with that, remember to give me that like comment share, shoutout and those ratings on whatever you're listening to. I really appreciate your support. Have a great day and catch on the next one.
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