Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing

Research Article

Smart Farming: An Enhanced Pursuit of Sustainable Remote Livestock Tracking and Geofencing Using IoT and GPRS

Table 1

An overview of different solutions proposed for livestock tracking and management.


Study	Weaknesses identified	Proposed solutions	State-of-the-art technology adoption				Research outcomes
Study	Weaknesses identified	Proposed solutions	GPS	GPRS	IoT	Others	Research outcomes

[41]	The conventional livestock tracking and management for a large herd is challenging for farmers in remote areas.	Spatial and temporal interaction of traditionally herded livestock and wildlife using GPS and GSM technologies in Northern Kenya	✓	✓	✓	Radio frequency	This study demonstrated the feasibility of tracking cattle using radio collars. It shows the complexity of spatial use for cattle and wildlife.

[42]	The tracking system available on commercial basis lacks the data storage capacity required for frequent collection of livestock data.	The study designed the Clark GPS Animal Tracking System to satisfy the needs of stakeholders attached to livestock management.	✓	✓	✓	Extended data storage	An evolving demand of ecological research requires adoption of the latest technology for tracking and managing the livestock.

[43]	The cost of GPS technology is a big barrier for efficient livestock tracking and management.	The study reviewed the GPS-based technologies being used for cattle management and suggested the improvements.	✓			Review of literature involving GPS technology	Ecologists have been employing best efforts towards livestock management using the latest technologies.

[44]	The animal behavior and grazing patterns are a very important measure for livestock health, tracking, and management.	The GPS system is used for tracking cows in six summer grazing areas having different environmental conditions and livestock managements.	✓		✓		The GPS positions of animals help to collect information relating to their grazing, resting, and playing patterns.

[37]	The traditional livestock management methods are tedious that involve human intervention and other resources.	The integrated system is comprised of tags, beacons, and base station nodes. Tag nodes communicate with other nodes to transmit location information of livestock.	✓	✓	✓	Beacon, tags	The android-based application outperformed the existing conventional tracking and cattle management systems.

[45]	The welfare breading of individual cattle is an important aspect especially in case of a large herd. Traditional methods of welfare breading are insufficient for managing a large number of cattle.	A remote monitoring system based on computer vision and wireless technologies was developed for remote monitoring of pigs in addition to measuring other parameters, i.e., humidity, temperature, and harmful gases.			✓	Computer vision	The study improved the traditional CAMShift algorithm for an enhanced tracking of pigs using computer vision and WSN for remote sensing technologies.

[46]	The livestock are under high threat of landslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Remote sensing of such natural disasters is viable to save the precious cattle.	The study integrated Landsat-8 and phased array type L-band synthetic aperture radar-2 (PALSAR-2) datasets and adopted the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method in mapping landslides in the Kelantan river basin, Peninsular Malaysia.		✓		Landsat-8 and PALSAR-2	The study demonstrated that employment of Landsat-8 and PALSAR-2 tools for remote sensing data along with GIS techniques were promising tools to map landslide assessment for tropical environments.

[47]	The conventional livestock monitoring parameters are insignificant for sustainable ranching of sheep.	The study integrated the global information system with remote sensing to analyze environmental variables to monitor and track sheep grazing.	✓	✓		Remote sensing tool	The GIS-based time analysis tool helped in collecting point data from GPS collars installed on sheep that enabled the remote sensing significantly.

[36]	The precision livestock farming in agriculture and food industries requires sustained production that is not possible by employing a traditional system.	BOSCA and CyberBar were developed for real-time product visibility to ensure integrity and quality. The proposed system helped stakeholders for better decision-making.		✓	✓	Cloud computing	The tracking of agrifood products with remote environmental monitoring significantly assisted in timely decision-making to all stakeholders.

[48]	The monitoring of livestock for safety, security, grazing, and health aspects is always very challenging due to animal nature and habits of livestock.	An open sourced framework that could capture the health parameters of livestock was developed. A wireless location acoustic sensing system was utilized to intake the health parameters of cattle.	✓	✓		Open sourced framework	The system provides high quality support to farmers in rural areas because of low cost and portability. The system outperformed the existing systems for monitoring the livestock.

[49]	The lamb industry in Victoria, which is a big industry, requires tracking and other visualization parameters of livestock for better herd management.	A comprehensive designing of spatial-temporal location movements of livestock with respect to the environmental parameters greatly helps in designing the paddocks to improve the management and performance of cattle welfare.	✓			Remote visualization systems	The GIS-based system significantly helps the farmers to seek frequent information about nitrogen emission to meet the local and global greenhouse gas targets. This helps in improving life quality of livestock ultimately.

[50]	Wild stocking animals are often lost due to a poor and old style cattle management system that increases the farming cost considerably.	The study combined GPS and wireless mobile cell network as positioning technologies to monitor the wild animals. The system is based on mobile beacons and network base stations.	✓	✓	✓	Wireless mobile cell networks	The traditional GPS, compass, and Wi-Fi technologies are useful for common tracking and management of livestock, but these technologies are still inadequate for monitoring of wild animals.

[51]	Conventional livestock management for a large herd is challenging for farmers in remote areas.	An RFID-based system is used to track and monitor the livestock for their identity and vaccination procedures.				RFID	The analysis concentrated on the colossal measure of RFID for better query processing.