Shaye Koester 00:08
Hey, Hey, it's Shaye Koester and I'm your host for the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast where we foster innovation and enthusiasm in the ranching industry through sharing the stories and practices of different ranchers and beef industry leaders. Be sure to be a greater part of this podcast and become involved on my social media pages. Follow @cattleconvos on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok or Shaye Koester on LinkedIn to join the conversations around the challenges we face as ranchers and how we can overcome them. You can also find more information about this podcast all my episodes and how to partner with me on this show, by going to my website, casualcattleconversations.com. With that, thanks for tuning in and let's see who our guest is today. Good morning, afternoon, evening, late at night, whatever time you're listening to this. Thank you for hopping on and joining me today, if you're new to the show, welcome. And if you're a returning listener, thanks for being loyal and let me know what some of your favorite episodes are and what other content you want to hear. Today, we're talking ag tech. Now, not just within the US, we're gonna hop the pond and go to Australia. Well, I guess it was a zoom call, I haven't actually been able to go to Australia yet. It is on my bucket list and a dream of mine however to go there. But we are going to visit with an ag tech company in Australia. So we are going to be visiting with Lewis Frost today to learn about Ceres Tag technologies. And that's Ceres c e r e s. And we're gonna learn about how that ear tag works for cattle and GPS monitoring and other monitoring systems that this technology has, how it can help ranchers, how you could even implement it on your operation, whether you're one of my listeners in the States or one of my listeners in Australia, Canada, and I know South Africa listens to Mexico. There's wherever you are listening is what I'm trying to get at is you're going to learn how it works, how it can help you and the purpose of this technology. Before we get going with that, I have a couple things. As always, remember to comment, rate and subscribe. The more of you do this, the more this show gets bumped up in the algorithm so more people can find it. So help out yourself by hitting subscribe and making sure that you get notified when new episodes come out and help others out and help them find this episode. Follow @cattleconvos on social media to join the community that I'm fostering on Instagram and Facebook and follow ceres_tag or go to their website cerestag.com that's c e r e s ta g.com to learn more about this after the show, I will also have that link in the show notes. And remember the show notes are the description or summary part of each episode that you have access to go comment on my Facebook posts or Instagram post about this episode that came out on the release date. So you can have a conversation there about what you learned or what questions you have. And also exciting news. DM me on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn to gain access to a free meeting of the minds a meeting of rancher minds. So I'm going to connect ranchers from around the nation or around the world if that happens, I suppose to an event that I am treating like a mastermind, where we can come together as a community and help each other talk through problems and issues within the beef industry for about an hour. And that event is happening in December, early December. So DM me and I will get you a link and more information. With that if you want to gain access to exclusive episodes from experts. There is a patron link that will also be in the show notes or the link in my bio on my social media. So become a patron take action to improve your operation, mindset and lifestyle by soaking in all the amazing content that I produce for you there. With that. Thank you. Thank you Thank you for hopping on. I am going to quit talking for a bit and we are going to get on on with the rest of the interview. Would you please just explain your background in the beef industry?
Lewis Frost 05:07
Yes, I actually got into the beef industry through the aquaculture industry. I've got a job in a beef cattle genomics laboratory, we're using the same technology that I've spent the last little while working on fish breeding and genetics with. From there, I spent about the last 15 years bringing different new and novel technologies into the beef and dairy cow industries in Australia and abroad.
Shaye Koester 05:32
Awesome. So where are you working now?
Lewis Frost 05:37
So right now, I'm the Chief Operating Officer with a company called Ceres Tag and Cereset Tag is a comprehensive animal monitoring company. And we recently launched our first product a director satellite ID tag for livestock.
Shaye Koester 05:52
Okay, so what is like the foundation of the Ceres tag company?
Lewis Frost 05:59
We started about six years ago, when husband and wife team David and Lena Smith returned to their family farm after having spent a number of years working and living abroad. And they realized that technology on the farm hadn't moved a single iota since they'd been away. So they set about trying to tackle some of the big challenges on the farm. And tried to understand how they could do that with technology. And they settled on this idea of remote monitoring and precision, livestock management, and looking for different technologies and IP that can help them do that.
Shaye Koester 06:35
Okay, so what problems were they trying to solve with this technology that they developed?
Lewis Frost 06:42
They were looking at issues in three sort of broad horizons, they're looking at challenges on the farm. And these are really farming efficiency challenges. So how can we better manage our animals? How can we better use available grazing and pasture lands? And how can we understand our livestock better? I know looking at another horizon, which really span the entire supply chain. So why should a device or a technology stop adding value at the farm gate? So they want to understand traceability, food security, food safety, food fraud, issues like this? And ultimately, how that story is then communicated at the third and final frontier, which is to the ultimate consumer of that, that red meat product?
Shaye Koester 07:27
Okay, awesome. So that's really neat to see the traceability aspect all the way to the consumer. So can you talk a little bit more about the functions of the Ceres Tag?
Lewis Frost 07:38
Yeah, so important to note, I think I mentioned earlier, the tag is communicating directly to the satellite. This is a really key feature of this device and makes it a well first, on top of that their devices using GPS satellites to determine where an animal's located. And that uses the advanced accelerometer to monitor an animal's activity, behavior changes to behavior, particularly focused on detecting any distress in the animal. And all of this is then sent back, by that direct satellite detection?
Shaye Koester 08:13
So is this like a battery-operated tag? Or what are the functions there?
Lewis Frost 08:21
So the tag is powered by a battery, but it's a completely sealed unit. So the battery will just continue powering the device. And it's completely maintenance-free, there's no need to go in and change batteries at any time.
Shaye Koester 08:34
So what would the battery life of the tag me, per se,
Lewis Frost 08:38
So we've got a really long battery life, the device will function for up to 10 years. And that's a factor of two different things. One is we use a really unique battery chemistry. So we haven't just settled for an off-the-shelf battery. And we couple that with a small solar panel on the tag that allows the tag to be recharged every day, of course, we can get going on the sun and gives us such a long, long life of the device.
Shaye Koester 09:03
Okay, so is it fairly easy to implement? When are producers typically putting this in? I know, you said you just launched that, but would they be putting in like after weaning or calving?
Lewis Frost 09:16
Look, you probably want to put it in, I think the ideal time is your handling, and you putting it in animals that you're then selecting to either retain or maybe not putting it in animals that are going to be turned off on a shorter paid program. So you're maximizing the life of the device on the animal and collecting as much information across the animal's life as you can. The tag stays with the animal for its entire life. So even if that animal moves along the supply chain to a background feeder, it will continue generating data and providing value for its owner.
Shaye Koester 09:49
So you've mentioned there's obviously like the health side of it and then there's the tracking and animal stuff side of it. What do you see it primarily being used for?
Lewis Frost 10:01
The really interesting thing about what the tag is used for is we try really hard to not tell people how to use it, which sounds kind of counterintuitive. But we find producers always have a couple of key problems they're trying to solve. And it's different for each and every producer we work with. So rather than tell them how to use it, we tell them what it's capable of. And then they work to develop their own sort of deployment strategy, how many tags do they need, they might not need to tag everything, but what they're doing, I only need to tag a selection of those animals to get the data they need to solve their problems. So it's a very flexible solution.
Shaye Koester 10:42
Okay, so it's collecting all this data? How does the producer access that and put that to use.
Lewis Frost 10:51
So we don't actually provide any end-user software at all. Because we don't see any sort of failure or market value in that space. There's hundreds of fantastic management, animal management fund management software packages out there. And we're working with as many as possible to have a full data integration with them. So what this should enable is that producers can just continue using the software system that paid for learn how to use in a comfortable way. And Ceres tag data will just appear right alongside the other information like animal weights and treatments, genetics, and so on.
Shaye Koester 11:29
Okay, what has the response from producers been to this technology,
Lewis Frost 11:35
Producers have been really engaged, I think it does take them a little while to realize it can do almost anything they want it to, but they're going to see the best bang for their buck when you have a plan. So work out the problems you're trying to solve, deploy the tags and gather the data you need and remote, importantly, make the decisions at the other end of that deployment. So you're changing practice, and driving your operation forward, not just generating the data generation sake. So we really work with people to help them go through that process, rather than telling them how to use the tag on the stock, really coach them on how to drive change that in their own operation.
Shaye Koester 12:16
Okay, so what are some of those key changes, you really see it impacting? From the ranch management side?
Lewis Frost 12:25
Look, I see it operating in a few key areas, probably unsurprisingly, one of the big areas we get a lot of inquiry from is theft. So just trying to reduce or stop count that from occurring. It's more of an issue in certain parts of the world than others, but even in a sort of well-developed market industry like in Australia, it still cost the industry over $250 million a year in direct stock loss. And that's a highly underreported figure. So there's probably a lot more stuff that's going on that people don't detect, or be able to detect and report. That's a big, big motivator for people. And pasture utilization would be another one. People want to know where their animals are going, which may develop a heat map of sorts to be able to work out where animals spend their time grazing or not on their property, and animal health. People really want to monitor their animals from a distress perspective. So you can't be with your animals, probably for seven, but to have a device that is, and it's going to send you an alert if something goes wrong. It provides a great deal of peace of mind for the end-user.
Shaye Koester 13:38
So because of that alert, is that something that would come in on a cell phone?
Lewis Frost 13:43
It does depend a little bit on what software you're using. So as I've mentioned, we work really closely with the end software providers. But what about minimum requirements is that they can push that alert to you either through an app, a text message, or an email, looks at alerts coming through directly that's come through in real-time. So if someone's feeling
Shaye Koester 14:09
Okay, so how does this tag compare to other tags? Because EIDs and other technologies like this, there's a lot coming out right now. There's a huge push. So how does yours compare to say other ones?
Lewis Frost 14:24
Compared to like an EID tag this is a massive stepwise change for the industry. But one thing we didn't want to do is we didn't want to come out and just disrupt the industry for disruption's sake. So what we've done is we've essentially built backwards compatibility to the device. So Ceres Tag can come with an RFID. So the same as what's inside of the EID built itself. It can even replace one of the other tags on the handle of identification in comparison to some of the other sort of monitoring Ceres tag technology is truly first. And it's one of the easiest and most affordable ways to get into animal monitoring. Because you don't have to put up any infrastructure for the antennas or towers, base stations or relays. So you're saving sort of 10s, or on a very large property up to hundreds of 1000s of dollars of hardware deployment costs. So you can just get a few tags, if you like it, keep using it. If not, you're not out of pocket that much.
Shaye Koester 15:30
Yeah, so how much do these tags cost?
Lewis Frost 15:34
We don't actually sell the tags individually, we sell them in packages. So they can either as a box of 24, that's more economical, or an introductory pack, which includes an applicator, and 10 individual tags. With that introductory pack for less than two and a half 1000 USD, you've moved into the world of precision animal management, but you've not made the commitment of putting all the hardware and infrastructure on your farm, you're gonna have to make that.
Shaye Koester 16:00
Okay. So how does it or have you been able to see with like, even your beta customers like having it go through the whole supply chain, so how has that worked, as far as different segments collaborating with each other,
Lewis Frost 16:18
The tag is, is readily identifiable, and it's marked as a Ceres Tag device. So that if the handshake doesn't essentially occur between someone selling cattle and someone buying cattle, the new owner can clearly recognize lots of the animals that come to our website, and we then set them up an account, so they can start accessing the data of essentially the new animals with tags, and they've recently acquired, so we can have sort of ownership of the access off as the animal moves along the supply chain. Ultimately, when that animal is processed, you've got this beautiful package of data, and it's like a golden thread to the animal's life that's been monitored precisely everywhere, in its entire journey. And what it experienced on the way.
Shaye Koester 17:05
Okay, so, big picture, 10,000-foot view. How do you really see this impacting the beef industry of Australia, and on a global scale, because these are not just in Australia at the moment?
Lewis Frost 17:20
We've already sold tags, since going live in 10 countries around the world. Again, everyone wants to use it for something different. But we really see it as bringing a level of transparency to the industry, when you're able to require an animal's know exactly what it's been and what its experiences life. And the person you want sell that animal to that's the same level of transparency, we're hoping it's going to bring a new level of clarity around traceability and provenance, where you're basing it on data, you're not basing it on information that's been recorded by a person against the electronic tag, the electronic tag that actually automating all of that data capture. So whether you're trying to manage a carbon sequestration project in Australia, prevent cattle grazing on the forested Amazonian rainforest, or ensure that your cattle are safe and healthy in South Africa or anywhere else in the world, you can use that single tag and legal system to enter this data and provide it to the people that matter to you in your value chain.
Shaye Koester 18:26
Well, awesome. Thank you very much for that. So where can producers go to learn more about this tag?
Lewis Frost 18:35
So you can check us out on our socials, any of the major social media channels, you can check out our YouTube channel. Or, you can just head to www.cerestag.com where you can even schedule a time to have a video or phone call with someone from the team if you got some particular questions that we might help you with.
Shaye Koester 18:53
Well, awesome. So kind of shifting gears a little bit what other I mean, you said you worked in the technology space before. So what other ag technologies are you excited about?
Lewis Frost 19:04
Look at the moment. My background is in genetics and breeding and genomics broadly. But right now, I'm really interested in genomics, and devices that are improving the level of automated recording and phenotyping that we're seeing come into the market. So we are advanced as a walkover weighing and remote weighing solutions, some of the individual feed intake systems and some of the computer vision solution. So looking at targets recording, and even estimating retail on a live animal. I think the more we can automate and improve the accuracy of the data we're collecting, the more it's going to power rapid evaluation systems. And that's just going to drive progress right across the entire industry.
Shaye Koester 19:48
Well, that is exciting to hear. So is there anything you'd like to tell producers about adapting to any new technology within the ag industry?
Lewis Frost 20:00
Yeah, I think I'd come back to the eyes wide open type approach. So as trying to establish before you even look at technology, trying to establish what problems you're trying to solve, then seek to understand what the technology is capable of, and then work out precisely how you're going to use it, not how other people have used it, not necessarily how the technology provider says to use it, try and work out how you're going to deploy it in your operation, for the maximum return on your investment, and the end of may be very different to what you've seen before.
Shaye Koester 20:34
Well, thank you for that. Is there anything else you'd like to add to this conversation or wrap up?
Lewis Frost 20:41
No, that's been fantastic. Thank you so much for having me.
Shaye Koester 20:44
And that is a wrap on that one. Thank you Lewis for coming and visiting with me and sharing your story, as well as the story of Ceres Tag. Now, with that, like I said before, please be sure to find @cattleconvos on social media, subscribe to this podcast, make sure you get updates. Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter by going to my website, casualcattleconversations.com/newsletter so that you get episodes sent straight to your inbox for free. If you want exclusive content, become a patron and take action today to improve your operation mindset and lifestyle. Be sure to follow Ceres Tag on social media as well. That's Ceres_tag. And with that, thank you for hopping on. You have a fantastic rest of your day, folks. I'll catch you on the next one.
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