Chaseman Spotlights

Ceres Tag.

Ceres Tag - revolutionising the future of Agriculture.

As part of an ongoing series, Chaseman Global shines a Spotlight on the agricultural innovators who are making a positive environmental impact on the future of our planet.

This edition explores Ceres Tag, the innovators of the world's first direct to satellite animal monitoring smart ear tag.

 

David Smith

"Ceres Tag takes the guesswork out of livestock. There are fundamental benefits that no one had thought of before because this capability and knowledge was previously out of reach. The tag enables people to make better decisions on land and know the health and welfare of their animals." 

David Smith

CEO & Co-Founder - Ceres Tag

Who Is Ceres Tag?

A World-First Platform.

Based in Australia with a global reach, Ceres Tag is an Agricultural technology company that has developed the world's first-ever animal smart ear tag with direct to satellite capabilities.

A first of its kind, this innovative tag utilises on-tag analytics and data collection to provide animal-specific insights to farmers and producers. From animal health monitoring, geospatial location data, and movement tracking, Ceres Tag makes farming easier, more scalable and sustainable.

The Ceres Tag is an automated, plug and play tool available to farmers across the globe.

 

The Origin of Ceres Tag.

Equipped with over 20 years of experience in the energy, construction and education industries, founders David and Melita decided to start Ceres Tag on returning to their family farm. 

With backgrounds in production, David and Melita wanted to develop a tool to enhance the agricultural decision-making of livestock producers through data-driven technology on a global scale. 

When developing the concept, with support from Accelerating Commercialisation, Advance QLD, MLA, CSIRO, Data61, and Globalstar, David and Melita focussed on answering three major questions:

  • Where are my animals?
  • How many are there?
  • What condition are they in?

"We had a problem with livestock theft on our family property. All existing systems were not suitable due to the limitation of infrastructure, so the only way to be able to track the animals and know where they have gone was if you did this via satellite. Once we had this concept in mind, we recognised that it also presented opportunities for knowing where your animals were at any particular time, how many animals were on your property, and what condition they were in. These three fundamentals are the basis of all of Ceres Tag's benefits present." 
- David Smith CEO & Co-Founder - Ceres Tag

The founders looked to expand on these on-farm parameters and apply them to broader business necessities. This included finance, insurance, and regulatory reporting. 

David and Melita considered the impact this aggregated information could have on the Agriculture sector. Their innovation focused on benefiting the full supply chain, traceability provenance, biosecurity, conservation, and sustainability.

The Ceres Tag launched after five years of development in May 2021. Since the commercial launch, they have established a global presence across 16 countries.  

Ceres Tag's revolutionary technology is at the forefront of scalable biosecurity monitoring, health, welfare, performance, and traceability provenance. Their solution is truly shaping the future of Agriculture.

Melita Smith

"With the support of MLA, CSIRO, Queensland Government, James Cook University and our design partner Clandestine Design Group, we are pushing to take this world first, transformative technology from Australia to the World."

Melita Smith

Co-Founder & GM Corporate Services - Ceres Tag

How the Ceres Tag works.

Not only is the Ceres Tag the first of its kind to use direct to satellite technology, but it is also the only solution requiring no additional infrastructure, maintenance, subscription, and no battery replacements.

Ceres Tags are designed to be easily applied to the animal's ear with minimal insertion force needed, unlike more traditional devices. The tag is mainly used on cattle, but ongoing trials will soon allow the tag to be used on other animals. 

As the animal wears the tag for its entire life, developers ensure it is as comfortable as possible. 

All the data from the Ceres Tag is transmitted via a constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. This allows the data to be gathered securely without the need for additional infrastructure.

Once all the data is received via the satellite, it is transferred and stored securely in Ceres Tag's cloud-based data platform. From here, the user can analyse their data. 

The user can integrate the data from the tag into their existing herd or farm management software. This allows them to access the data from the cloud. The user can also share the data with other third parties of their choice.

Each Ceres Tag has an accelerometer, which aggregates and evaluates the data from the tag. In addition, the tag is an edge computing node using machine learning to indicate an animal's specific activity patterns. 

The tag monitors the animal's activity 24/7. An algorithm is used to measure the activity based on a scale of zero, low, medium, high and extreme activity.

Benefits of the tag.

Real-Time Alerts. 

The Ceres Tag provides real-time alerts and metrics which are sent to the user four times a day.

These metrics allow the user to answer the three questions David and Melita set out to answer - Where are my animals? How many are there? What condition are they in?

In addition, farmers can use the data from the Ceres Tag to manage their pastures and rotational grazing. Producers can also monitor their carbon footprint, as the tag monitors the number of kilometres each animal has travelled. 

Users will receive alerts based on the different animal activity levels - the scale of zero to extreme activity. These alerts can indicate the animal's welfare, biosecurity risks, stock theft, unusual mustering, and anomalies. 

GPS Monitoring. 

The direct to satellite technology that the Ceres Tag uses allows for GPS location. This means producers can accurately track and trace their livestock.

Producers can utilise this data from GPS monitoring to understand their animals' grazing habits, movement patterns and to analyse pasture utilisation. 

Ceres Tag also allows the producer to set up geofencing - a property boundary. Here, the farmer can track the animal-specific geospatial location data. They will also receive notifications for instances such as stock theft, wandering or breakouts.

Farmers can also mark out water points in the boundary, ensuring their animals go to the water points and receive regular nutrients.

Benefits of GPS Positioning​:

  • Mustering
  • Finance & Insurance​
  • Asset Register​
  • Land Utilisation​
  • Carbon Farming​​

Record-Breaking Retention System.

As mentioned, animal welfare is key for Ceres Tag, so they intended to make the tag as comfortable as possible for the animal. The retention system of the tag is designed to stay on the animal's ear for life. 

Trials have proven the Ceres Tag to have a record-breaking strength of up to 297kg. This strength is five times greater than more common plastic tags.

Ceres Tag Benefits Summarised.

  • Traceability (specifically cattle price premiums attributable to improved provenance and administrative cost savings)
  • Improved on-farm operating efficiency (specifically, mustering efficiency with potential savings of 13% to 19% mustering costs​)
  • Reduced financing risk from the availability of up-to-date, animal-specific
  • data regarding location and health of the herd
  • Enhanced GPS monitoring and more timely treatment of endemic disease
  • Greater deterrence of stock theft
  • Improved herd management to decrease the impact of animal attacks.
  • No additional infrastructure, maintenance, subscription or battery replacements. (10-year battery life)
  • Record-Breaking Retention System
  • Animal welfare considerations
  • Real-time alerts

For more detail on the benefits of Ceres Tag download this PDF.

How is Ceres Tag making an impact?

Ceres Tag enables producers to access a level of precision animal management that has never been seen before. 

Ultimately, the impact of the smart tag is making farming more manageable. Ceres Tag allows people in Agriculture to make more informed decisions through the data the tags collate. 

Ceres Tag is big on the planet's long-term sustainability. Their producers manage their waste, and all packaging is recyclable or compostable.

David would say that sustainability has always been at the heart of everything Ceres Tag does. David said: "Sustainability is at the heart of everything at Ceres tag, from product development, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and each platform's benefits. Ceres Tag has been doing this since its inception in 2016."

The talent within the company is on board with Ceres Tag's vision. Although they don't all have a background in Agriculture, they all have a passion for the innovative work Ceres Tag brings to the sector. 

David Smith

"Ceres Tag is well on the way to becoming the worlds most comprehensive animal monitoring platform. Essentially the Apple for Animals. It has machine learning embedded in everything we do, so there is no improvement that we can not implement with each update or algorithm to make your monitoring experience customisable to each customer.

Ceres is where the iPhone was when it first launched. It won't take long over the next decade for most farmers to be recording their location and welfare for the betterment of the animals, their owners or custodians and the planet."

David Smith

CEO & Co-Founder - Ceres Tag

What Does The Future Hold For Ceres Tag?

Looking ahead, Ceres Tag is currently aiming to scale and build on its established foundations.

Continued work is in development with Ceres Tag. The company is trialling the tag on animals other than cattle, including pigs, dogs, bison and buffalo.

Ceres Tag is on the cusp of launching a wildlife concept, and other agricultural products are also in the pipeline. In addition, the companion animal product is currently in development. This tool will enable pet owners to track their cats and dogs from home.    

The innovators at Ceres Tag aim to reach more customers globally. They want to ensure producers receive the technology to improve their day-to-day and ultimately enhance the efficiency of Agriculture for future generations.

We at Chaseman Global would like to thank Ceres Tag for speaking to us and for the innovative technology they've developed within Agriculture.

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