THE FARMING OF

TOMORROW IS ALREADY
HERE: HOW LoRaWAN®
TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTS
SMART AGRICULTURE
& PRECISE ANIMAL
PRODUCTION
NOVEMBER 2020

INTRODUCTION from farm to fork. With approximately 1.5 million cattle

and nearly 978 million pigs being bred around the world
(source: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QA), these
complex demands cannot be met without the help of new
Recent extreme incidents around the globe—famine,
technologies, such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT).
climate change, wildfires, tornados, droughts, floods, and
pandemics—remind us that farmers are facing two major
challenges: to feed the planet and sustain the environment. Here are a few examples of the wide variety of use
The balance between conducting intensive or extensive cases implemented today:
production to feed an ever growing population and
• Connected scales can randomly weigh the animals in the
respecting our environment and usage of natural resources building to get an idea of their average weight. Individual
is a line not to be crossed. In other words, Earth’s tracking is too expensive in this type of production and
resources are finite and we have to learn how to respect the would not make sense as it is impossible or too costly to
planet if we want to keep living on it. implement an individual correction per animal.
• In the swine industry, individual monitoring solutions can
Meanwhile, in the last 50 years, we have witnessed major be implemented on sows for their welfare or to optimize
changes in agricultural processes leading to what we the reproduction by pig/hog, but will generally be
call “precision agriculture”, or Smart Farming. Precision monitored at the group level; ambient monitoring, noise,
agriculture means that animals get precisely the food, care behavior analysis, unless associated with automatic
or treatment they need at the right moment, determined handling systems to scale and sort the animals
with great accuracy thanks to the latest technology. according to, for instance, their weight.
Precision agriculture allows actions to be taken per
• For beef production, when animals are only handled a
square meter or even per plant for optimal production and couple of times per year and are left grazing in extensive
sustainable crops.* pastures for most of the time, tracking solutions become
very useful to monitor the location of the herd, to identify
In animal production, farmers have to increase their daily abnormal behavior of an animal compared to the herd or,
production with more environmentally friendly inputs in some cases, to detect theft.
and less manpower while ensuring less greenhouse gas
emission, animal welfare, and answering the customer’s Moreover, besides animals, there are plenty of assets
need for complete traceability and quality assessment to track on farms. From preventive maintenance on

*For more information on this, read our White Paper: WHY LoRaWAN IS THE LOGICAL CHOICE FOR CROP PRODUCTION MONITORING SOLUTIONS

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 THE FARMING OF TOMORROW IS ALREADY HERE: HOW LoRaWAN® TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORTS SMART AGRICULTURE & PRECISE ANIMAL PRODUCTION

machinery, tools, and trailers to logistical optimization for In this White Paper, we give our readers an overview of
fuel tanks, water tanks, sensitive products. Several security real case studies of what can be achieved with LoRaWAN
issues can also be attended to by door/gate or fence applications in the poultry, swine, beef, and dairy cattle
monitoring. industries. Several LoRa Alliance® members describe how
their solutions help track and optimize animal production
to make a farmer’s jobs more efficient. In addition, we’ll
As cellular networks usually do not cover rural areas very
address bee monitoring solutions as bees play an essential
well, the huge flexibility of LoRaWAN in covering buildings
role in the pollination of large fields, such as in California’s
or large fields make this the de facto technology for Smart
almond and pistachio groves, where monitoring the
Agriculture applications.
activity of beehives becomes essential to ensure a quality
production.

Poultry Farming Pig Farming Cattle Farming Beekeeping

Tektelic & PrognostiX Zenseio AWS Zenseio

Webee Tensor IoT & AWS Pessl Instruments Beewise (AWS)

Webee & Panasonic FeedLive
Food Retail Digital
Center Miromico
Chipsafer & Flex
smaXtec w/Kerlink +
Repeater + Climate
Sensor
Caravan Tech w/
Orbiwise

PrognostiX utilizes TEKTELIC’s (Calgary-based supplier of

POULTRY FARMING LoRaWAN gateways and devices) KONA Macro and Micro
Gateways to provide the LoRaWAN connectivity needed
for their innovative Poultry Sense solution. LoRaWAN is the
ideal technology to provide cost-effective, scalable, long-
range, low power, and secure bi-directional communication
between devices and gateways. The KONA Macro IoT
Gateway is designed to be compact and lightweight, and
Real-time monitoring of environmental and health
is targeted at rugged outdoor installations which require a
parameters with TEKTELIC & PrognostiX UK
small form factor and low power consumption. The KONA
PrognostiX designed its Poultry Sense IoT solution Micro IoT Gateway was built for indoor applications that
to capture accurate, real-time insights into birds and require Always On connectivity for their IoT solutions,
environmental conditions on poultry farms to improve bird and comes equipped with reliable LTE backhaul and a
performance and welfare. They use sensors for monitoring built-in four-hour battery backup to ensure continuous data
temperature, humidity, water consumption, and for wireless collection.
weighing platforms. Poultry Sense combines a wealth of
evidence and expertise from specialist vets, engineers, and
data analysts to bring together real-time data across both
environmental and health parameters. The wireless system
feeds accurate, live data into a bespoke analytics platform Increasing animal fertility rates with Webee
that uses artificial intelligence to produce insights for better-
Webee, a California-based startup providing an end-to-end
informed on-farm and supply chain decision making.
IoT toolset that allows connectivity through sensors and
devices, has partnered up with a local systems integrator

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 THE FARMING OF TOMORROW IS ALREADY HERE: HOW LoRaWAN® TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORTS SMART AGRICULTURE & PRECISE ANIMAL PRODUCTION

to improve egg hatching results to ensure an 88% birth For example, LoRaWAN Alliance member Zenseio, founded
rate for large scale poultry producers. The solution uses in 2014 in Texas, developed an industrial-grade hardware
LoRaWAN sensors to monitor industrial egg incubators platform for smart agriculture applications where durability,
and capture critical real-time information on temperature, long-range and low-power are key requirements. In addition
humidity, doors (open/close), ventilation and environmental to Zenseio’s versatile LSMP and CSMP telemetry devices
conditions. for irrigation and water management, its LoRaWAN sensors
are used for monitoring feed and water fill levels, as well
as environmental conditions to alert farmers to adverse or
LoRaWAN, the obvious choice for Webee, enables one
stressful conditions that may be experienced by hogs.
gateway to cover a very extensive area including multiple
incubators without the need for complex installations, and
low consumption sensors that will last for years without a Furthermore, Zenseio devices are piloted to help automate
battery replacement. Therefore, the customer doesn’t need the recordkeeping of animal conditions, caretaking routines,
to purchase expensive new incubator equipment and sees and input costs. Zenseio sensor devices are designed
no disruption in the current process. This solution provides to provide years of service in tough environments. Since
the producer with real time actionable insights in the form there are many sensors of various types inside several
of alerts, like SMS, in cases when the temperature is out of metal and concrete buildings, LoRaWAN radio technology
range or the doors are left open for several minutes. The allows reliable and cost-effective coverage with just a single
producer was also able to see all information in real time, gateway, even in remote rural areas with spotty cellular
combining the data coming from SAP, the LoRa sensors coverage.
and the manual forms filled by employees, which enables
them to track progress, find failures that result in a lower
egg hatching rate and forecast production. Webee’s No
Code IoT Solution Builder, was key to integrating the data
from the LoRa sensors, SAP and other sources, and allows
a complete customization without needing to hire software Animal tracking with Tensor IoT and AWS
engineers. Tensor IoT and Amazon Web Services have collaborated
on a solution developed for animal management that
accurately tracks animal counts. One of these solutions is
object detection that can accurately identify weaned pigs.
SWINE/PIG FARMING An algorithm uses detections to track weaned pigs across
the frames to increase/decrease the count based on pigs
leaving/entering the view respectively. An AWS Greengrass
infrastructure can be deployed and run inferences at the
edge. Finally, a website shows the video and counts in real-
time for easy readable data.

A platform for animal health, production and

environmental monitoring with Zenseio
Similarly to other animal production, the pork production Animal and supply chain monitoring and tracking
industry is extremely sensitive to herd health. Strict with Webee and Panasonic Food Retail Digital
processes and mechanisms are necessary to avoid viral Center
infections that can result in health diseases transmitted
Webee, in collaboration with Panasonic Food Retail Digital
through the animal, as well as substantial losses for
Center (FRDC), collaborated to test an end-to-end solution
producers.
to improve pork production and obtain traceability to track
meat from production to the grocery store. Powered by IoT,
Animals that are well cared for lead a higher quality of AI, and blockchain, LoraWAN sensors were installed across
life and are healthier, reducing the use of antibiotics and pig farms to track vital signs (via ear tags attached to over
increasing meat quality. 600 pigs per zone), control environmental conditions such

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 THE FARMING OF TOMORROW IS ALREADY HERE: HOW LoRaWAN® TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORTS SMART AGRICULTURE & PRECISE ANIMAL PRODUCTION

as ventilation, air quality, lighting and energy consumption,

and track and trace meat during transportation. To
accomplish the latter, Webee used LoRaWAN asset
and vehicle tracking sensors installed in pallets, and
Effective, comprehensive farm monitoring with
Panasonic CRBs (cold roll box) to monitor conditions,
Pessl Instruments
shock, temperature/humidity and location. The project also
included the deployment of monitoring sensors in retail Pessl Instruments has been offering a complete range
stores to maintain meat temperature end-to-end, from farm of wireless, solar-powered monitoring systems under the
to table. brand METOS operating in various industries, including
agriculture.
LoRaWAN low power radio communication allows for the
placement of numerous sensors throughout the dairy farm.
CATTLE FARMING With all data transmitted through one gateway, connected
to the farm’s internet connection, the cellular cost is
reduced to nothing.
Modern dairy cows are bred and fed for high productivity
(with udders that are highly productive bioreactors) and This enables monitoring temperature and relative humidity
whose high metabolisms produce a lot of heat, which in different areas of the stables—important at organic dairy
must be transferred away from the cow as farmers are farms. Several LoRATH devices, measuring temperature
increasingly aware of their animals’ susceptibility to heat- and relative humidity, have been placed in stables. To
stress. Optimum temperatures range below 18°C, but if monitor moisture, soil and food temperature, a LoRAIN
the temperature rises above 24°C, significant reductions in system has been placed in the pasture or free-range area
herd productivity can be anticipated. In addition, there is a of the farm. Mobile apps for Android and IOS allow farmers
shortage of quality labor in dairy farming as it is challenging to access the LoRaWAN data from wherever they are.
for farmers to find skilled workers. Coupled with a lack of Models for the well-being of the animals are calculated on
precise tools to manage their operations, farmers are not the website. The outputs are available for weather forecast
generating as much milk (revenue) as they could. and for measured data.

Several companies have developed solutions to monitor the The use of LoRaWAN technology allows a highly cost
welfare of cattle. effective and nearly real-time monitoring of environmental
issues on dairy farms. By using the internet, it permits fast
warning if a stress problem (i.e. heat stress) occurs. The
monitoring of outdoor weather with the help of LoRaWAN
technology results in optimal harvesting and cattle feed.

Cattle and farm management via smart devices

with AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) gives farmers the ability to
shift and manage their herd remotely from a smart device.
Each cow is fitted with a smart collar which is coupled Optimizing cattle health and well-being for cattle
with a mobile app. This allows the farmer to create virtual with ITK’s FarmLife
paddocks, physically shift cows, and monitor the well- Feed’Live, a feeding disorder detection service for cattle
being of each cow. The AWS Customer can easily push developed by ITK, has enabled cows to be treated in
new functionality to customers by updating the app and record time. Thanks to a connected collar, disorders can
pushing a firmware update using OTA to the smart collar. be detected four days earlier, leading to faster recovery.
The AWS Customer gives farmers back control of their Furthermore, it can detect limping as well as effective
assets, their farms, and their lives. The system reduces treatment provided to the cow by the farmer. The IoT
labor requirements, increases milk production, makes technology’s proven advantages for smart agriculture,
compliance easy, and improves animal welfare. including long range communication and ultra-low power

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 THE FARMING OF TOMORROW IS ALREADY HERE: HOW LoRaWAN® TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORTS SMART AGRICULTURE & PRECISE ANIMAL PRODUCTION

consumption, were key characteristics for ITK to develop its The farmer will receive warnings if cattle leaves the specific
cattle monitoring sensors. LoRaWAN devices’ flexibility in area or if there is any abnormal movement. Once detected
deployment makes a key difference for connecting animals the farmer receives detailed information about the animals
and offers the potential for a significant ROI. and can immediately react in the most appropriate way.

Chipsafer collaborated with Flex to develop a hardware

solution for the data collection. Flex has five decades of
experience creating devices, and deep understanding of
technology which helped guide Chipsafer to choose the
Livestock location tracking with Miromico most suitable technologies for its use case.
Asset tracking is one of the most promising verticals of
Internet-of-Things (IoT) and challenging in implementation
from a technological point of view. Determination of
geolocation parameters are power hungry and the
development of integrated sensors requires novel solutions.
Semtech recently introduced the first product of its new Farmers now monitor their cows from the inside
LoRa Edge platform that will enable indoor and outdoor with smaXtec
asset management. The LoRa Edge multi-technology In the last few decades, herd sizes, farms, and their
asset management solution (LR1110) is a game-changing structures, have changed significantly. This does not always
geolocation solution that significantly reduces the cost and allow for the ideal level of individual animal care. Price
complexity of locating and monitoring IoT assets. The new pressure is constantly increasing and production efficiency
module of Miromico FMLR-LR1110-X-STL0Z is based on is becoming even more important. Consumers tend to be
the LR1110 chip of Semtech and allows fast prototyping. more sensitive about animal welfare, from where their milk
Miromico is currently working on a proof-of-concept (PoC) comes from to the conditions in which cows live. That’s why
using the FMLR-LR1110-X-STL0Z module together with its farmers have started using technologies like smaXtec for
partner Compsesa. Within the PoC, sensors are developed support.
to monitor around 15 thousand cattle in Ecuador.

SmaXtec was founded as a research project and is now a

technology leader in its field. The company has collected
over 5 billion data points on cows and sold 70,000+ pieces.
Their unique device, in the form of a bolus, constantly
measures inner body temperature, activity, and pH values
in the rumen, the most accurate point in the dairy cow’s
Monitoring movement and defining geofencing
body. The system informs farmers about signs of heat and
areas with Chipsafer and Flex
calving, and diseases are detected several days prior to
Chipsafer, founded in Uruguay in 2013 and it moved its clinical symptoms.
headquarters to Singapore in 2020, developed a product
suitable for volume manufacturing. The design iterations
Furthermore, this allows for early treatment and a drop
included multiple stages of DFX which incorporates Design
in antibiotic usage of up to 30%. The system includes
for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Testing (DFT), and
boluses, as well as the carrier grade Base Station provided
Design for Cost (DFC). After further analysis, it was clear
by Kerlink, Repeater, and Climate Sensor. The hardware
that LoRaWAN would be the best choice for Chipsafer in
is connected via LoRaWAN, making continuous data
terms of range, power consumption, and cost for rural
transmission possible. The partnership with Kerlink, a
areas.
world-leading LoRaWAN infrastructure provider, is essential
to smaXtec in order to scale the solution all around the
Using Chipsafer’s portal, a farmer knows where his/her world with technically proven solutions at minimum risk.
animals are at all times, can access insights and actionable The data collected by the bolus is transferred to the Kerlink
information to better manage the herd and can define Base Station from where it is uploaded to the cloud.
geofencing areas to monitor the movements of the animals. Farmers receive notifications on their smartphones if

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 THE FARMING OF TOMORROW IS ALREADY HERE: HOW LoRaWAN® TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORTS SMART AGRICULTURE & PRECISE ANIMAL PRODUCTION

measures need to be taken, making their daily work easier

and more efficient. Through strategic partnerships, Caravan Tech is currently
integrating existing third-party sensors to their open
platform, such as weighing systems, meteorological
stations, electrical fence status, opening of electrical
fences, automatic electrical fence lifting, and opening or
closing gates. They seek developers who have existing
devices that want to be part of our ecosystem, facilitating
A comprehensive ecosystem for tracking and management of farming operations, as well as improving
monitoring both cattle and farm with Caravan producer’s performance.
Tech
Caravan Tech is an ecosystem of devices that were
created based on the needs and challenges in the
livestock sector. Featured products include the Ear Tag BEEKEEPING
(Caravan Tag), the intra-ruminal bolus and the Caravan
Chat. The first two devices transmit vital animal data used
for the total management and control of livestock on a
farm, thus significantly improving its overall performance.
Caravan Chat is a unique chat system that allows parties
to communicate through the LoRaWAN network, even in
areas without cellular coverage.

The Ear Tag (Caravan Tag) for cattle is similar to current Monitoring devices embedded within beehives
ear tags. This tag is capable of reporting every 15 minutes with Zenseio
for more than 5 years using the LoRaWAN communication Zenseio devices are used to monitor the well-being
protocol. The main data reported is position by triangulation of beehives to reduce bee mortality rates and to help
and GPS, external temperature, detection of steps, jumps, sustain the beekeeping industry. A beehive colony is a
falls, and unusual movements. collective organism, which, like a person, has vital signs
indicating good health or sickness. Zenseio devices are
The intra-ruminal bolus is a device that, once inserted, will embedded inside beehives to continually monitor key
remain in the animal rumen throughout its life. It is capable health parameters and alert beekeepers when the values
of transmitting data from inside the animal to nearby ear move outside the normal range. Alert messages are
tags around it, regardless if it is associated with just one. also triggered when an unexpected outside disturbance
The device transmits the internal body temperature, which to a beehive is detected, such as ransacking by a bear
helps to identify diseases, and efficient heat detection. It or thieves. Thanks to LoRaWAN radio, Zenseio devices
also measures the number of steps, movements, intake can be low cost to manufacture and operate, allowing
and provides geolocation in case of emergency. All data economies of scale to equip large numbers of beehives
taken is sent through the LoRaWAN Network feed and located in remote rural areas.
the algorithms of the Caravan Tech Software providing a
complete tool for agro-livestock management.

Caravan Tech has developed other types of sensors,

including water level sensors, door and window open
Inter-connected network of robotic beehives with
closed status sensors for barns or any other building,
Beewise
vehicle tracker, fuel level and consumption in tanks, horse
Beewise, by AWS, provides a robotic beehive that allows
collar, gates sensors and emergency button, among
beekeepers to remotely treat their bees. They developed
others. In addition, the company has developed a unique
a network of these robotic beehives distributed in the field,
traceability tool, that allows complete tracking of the
monitoring millions of bees within a single device and
livestock throughout its whole life.

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 THE FARMING OF TOMORROW IS ALREADY HERE: HOW LoRaWAN® TECHNOLOGY
SUPPORTS SMART AGRICULTURE & PRECISE ANIMAL PRODUCTION

analyzing the outgoing data. Beewise needed to provide a CONCLUSION

centralized system that monitors and controls a significant
amount of distributed sensors, in the field and in real-time,
with little to no lag, while being accurate and secure.
Today, every agricultural sector depends on farm data
collection. By combining high flexibility with a variety of
Beewise deployed a wide inter-connected network of implementation modes in rural areas, the high performance
distributed devices and sensors using AWS IoT Core and and long duration of the sensors, and a wide range of
AWS IoT Device Management. Additionally, using other proven devices and solutions available on the market,
AWS services, they achieved an astounding aggregate of LoRaWAN is the de facto state-of-the-art technology for
large amounts of data to a centralized repository, where collecting data in the animal production industry.
they analyzed the data, and sent back commands to Like major technology changes in the past—artificial
distributed systems in real-time. insemination, genetics, nutrition, genomics—the monitoring
As a result, more bees have survived, thrived, and of animal production is a game changer in the path to a
pollinated. Beewise was able to achieve a dramatic sustainable and profitable food industry. Traceability from
increase in plant pollination and honey production, while farm to fork is one of the biggest challenges for meat and
significantly reducing manual labor. Thanks to AWS IoT, dairy producers and LoRaWAN monitoring solutions are
Beewise lowered the average bee mortality rate from ~40% essential contributors to assisting the farmer on a daily
(in today’s beehives) to less than 10% in Beewise’s robotic basis.
AI-controlled beehives.

By participating in the costs of monitoring solutions and

openly sharing data with the full trust and confidence
between all the stakeholders of the industry, farmers should
overcome the biggest challenges of the next century: to
feed the planet safely, sustainably, and profitably with
respect to the welfare of both farmers and animals.

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