GPS tracking for monitoring animal, plant and soil interactions in livestock systems

Title
GPS tracking for monitoring animal, plant and soil interactions in livestock systems
Publication Date
2008
Author(s)
Trotter, Mark
Lamb, David
Type of document
Conference Publication
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA)
Place of publication
Monticello, United States of America
UNE publication id
une:10344
Abstract
GPS tracking is becoming increasingly common as a research tool for monitoring livestock activity. This paper reports on the development of UNEtracker, a low-cost GPS collar that can be deployed in large numbers for monitoring stock movement. An assessment of positional accuracy of UNEtracker showed a mean error from actual receiver position of 4.14 metres with a standard deviation of 3.04 metres. Results demonstrated 99.9% of points fell within 20 and 97.3% within 10 meters of the known point. The UNEtracker was used to track the movement of four steers over a 14 day period. The tracked steers were shown to have distinct preferences for certain areas within the trial site. A Livestock Hour Index (LHI) is used as a means of quantifying and mapping the impact of livestock activity on the landscape. Integration of LHI data with maps of photosynthetically-active biomass (as derived from satellite imagery), elevation, and even information concerning neighbouring herds, has been demonstrated to provide significant interpretation power to the collected data.
Link
Citation
9th ICPA Proceedings CD

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