Supply of cattle Sensors suitable for outdoor use with a verified >95% accurate step count and lying time data

As part of a collaborative research project Rothamsted Research at it's North Wyke site in Devon requires the supply of cattle sensors suitable for outdoor use with a verified >95% accurate step count and lying time data for use with its livestock within the Cell Grazing project. Both the sensor hardware, and monitoring software are required within this contract.

Agri-tech Cornwall is a 3 year £10m initiative to increase Research Development and Innovation in the Agri-tech sector across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the project is led by the Duchy College Rural Business School in partnership with leading research institutions - the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and Rothamsted Research, as well as the Cornwall Development Company.

For more information about the project please visit the website www.agritechcornwall.co.uk

Rothamsted Research with our unique research operation at North Wyke aims to develop solutions for resilient grassland farming and associated food chains. As part of one of our collaborative research programmes we are researching the effects of cell/mob grazing versus traditional continuous grazing in order to understand the wider impacts on animal health, welfare, product quality, environmental impact and cost benefit analysis.

This cell/mob grazing management method is an innovative system that will be tested under experimental conditions against a control (continuous grazing system). This method has shown increased pasture and land productivity in beef and sheep systems, and now the animal health & welfare along with environmental impact will also be assessed under controlled conditions.

Within our Cell Grazing project we need to accurately monitor the health and wellbeing of the livestock both in the control continuous grazing herd and the cell/mob grazing study herd. In order to do this we need highly reliable outdoor animal sensors collecting comparable data sets.

As part of this project we are inviting your organisation to respond in providing a quotation for the following specification:

WP1 - Supply of livestock sensors

Animal sensors suitable for outdoor use for 42 weaned dairyxbeef calves Sensors to have a verified >95% accurate step count

Sensors to have a verified >95% accurate lying time data

Sensors able to store data for an extended period of time before download (> 6 days)

Testing and commissioning customer support provision

WP2 - Supply of monitoring hardware and software

Self-contained mobile sensor reader which provides a wireless data download solution for outdoor data collection Single software tool to manage the data and to view and export data into report formats.

Testing and commissioning customer support provision

Supply to:

Rothamsted Research

North Wyke

Okehampton

Devon

EX20 2SB

The sensors would need to be supplied by the 31st July 2018.

If you have any technical questions regarding the sensor requirements please contact:

Dr Sarah Mor