New AI technology which captures and documents the unique 'fingerprint' of a cow's muzzle is gathering interest amongst beef and dairy farmers.
Melburnian Dr Philip Zada, founder of Stoktake, said his innovative product could have multiple uses throughout the cattle supply chain.
He spoke to Stock & Land at the recent Future Ag Expo in Melbourne.
Stoktake's process involved capturing a three to five second video of an animal's muzzle and this was then uploaded into a data storage and recognition platform.
Each cow has a unique muzzle print from when they are six months old.
Farmers would take the quick video of each bovine in a race or head gate or automatic cameras could be set up around the farm.
Dr Zada said the muzzle print essentially acted as a "digital record" for the cow, which it could be linked to at sale, export and eventually slaughter.
In time, the muzzle print could be used to determine a weaner's sire, for example, if the bull's muzzle print was also in the system.
"It's an image recognition platform and it provides integration management and insurance when it comes to livestock management," he said.
"Our goal is to provide a new standard for a connected livestock ecosystem.
"What that means is having an ability to have assurance, traceability and verifiability for livestock through the entire supply chain."
He said the technology would be "complementary" to existing cattle identification methods such as branding and tagging.
However, he said ear tags and branding could be taken off or changed, whereas the muzzle ID would be the same throughout the animal's life.
"Once that cow is registered once, then that profile is available for its life," he said.
"You might not have a need for it now but once that cow is registered with that data, it could be used at the slaughter yard or in the export market."
Dr Zada said the technology would even be able to recognise individual cattle in a mob of uniform black Angus stock.
"Each cow has a completely unique print on its muzzle," he said.
Dr Zada's vision for Stoktake was for the tool to be free to use for farmers.
"Effectively, once we get past our pilot stage, our vision is to roll this out free to farmers," he said.
"We want to actually give them a platform where they can manage their data for free.
"Where we get paid for it is when it is used down the line in the supply chain - at the saleyards and processing."
He said with more and more regulation surrounding live cattle exports from Australia, Stoktake could have a role in ensuring better traceability.
"With the export market and its regulations, it could play a vital part," he said.
Dr Zada said the tool could also have a major role in reducing cattle theft.
If a cow had its muzzle scanned and uploaded, it would be traceable back to its original farm.
"It's like having a security sign on your front lawn," he said.
He said to be able to use the tool, farmers just needed a smartphone.
