A livestock pasture display tag of a type used under harsh agricultural conditions, the tag comprising: (i) a thin, substantially, flat planar flexible display having a thickness, a front planar surface and a back planar surface, both surfaces are substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis positioned between surfaces; at least one of said surfaces is having a display section in which the livestock animal indicia is displayed; (ii) an anchoring section for fixedly securing the improved livestock pasture display tag to a body part surface of the livestock animal; and (iii) a permanent pressure sensitive encapsulation zone.

A system and method are disclosed for tracking animals, which may include production animals as well as pets. The system and method may comprise a tag system that is attached to an animal that generally has at least a near-field-communication (NFC) tag. The tag system comprises at least an NFC tag and a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. For NFC tags, such tags may be read with a portable computing device, such as a mobile telephone running NFC reader application software. The phone may communicate with a communications network and ultimately a computer server in order to relay information received from a respective electronic tag. The electronic tags may be fastened, embedded, or ingested by an animal. The electronic tags may be part of a mechanical coupling. Each mechanical coupling may comprise a different structure depending on the whether the tags are fastened to, embedded in, or ingested by the animal.

Systems and methods of measuring drug efficacy and side effects using non-invasive or husbandry-only testing are described. Steps include testing a cohort with a proposed husbandry-only protocol against an existing gold-standard treatment, and then validating the use of a created surrogate, non-invasive metric in place of an invasive metric. Then, the validated non-invasive surrogate metric and the husbandry-only protocols are used with an animal treatment cohort to study a new proposed treatment. A control cohort is also used, subject to the same husbandry-only testing and the surrogate metric. A statistical difference in outcomes, using one or more surrogate metrics, between the treatment cohort and the control cohort is the drug efficacy, for a drug used to treat the treatment cohort.

Aggregates of sets of identification tags are described, such as may be used on animals, such as mice or rats, affixed to ears or attached otherwise to an animal. A set may comprise from two to five patterns. An aggregate may comprise one to five sets. Patterns comprise a perimeter with an interior contrasting field, optional contrasting shapes within the field, and an optional contrasting shape core within a shape. Simple shapes may be squares, circles, or triangles. Shapes are selected for maximum machine readability. A pattern may have from zero to three shapes in its field. Patterns within sets are selected for maximum differentiation between the patterns in the set. Aggregates are selected based on the number of different sets required. Identification tags may be used to uniquely identify animals in a cage. Shown are specific patterns for embodiments of devices, systems and methods.

A method and system for assisting a human in detecting an exception animal, for which an abnormal measurement value has been detected, wherein a geographical position is obtained of the exception animal, a geographical position if obtained of a user equipment of the human, a distance is determined between the obtained geographical position of the exception animal and the obtained geographical position of the user equipment, and when the determined distance is smaller than a threshold limit, an indication is sent to the user equipment confirming the proximate presence of the exception animal.

The present specification relates to apparatus, methods and kits for applying an identification tag to an animal and removing a tissue sample from the animal. Apparatus of the disclosure cannot be manipulated to transfer an identification tag from one animal to another. An apparatus can comprise a sample container, a flap, a downholder clip and a cutting element that can be placed on a male part of an ear-tag and at least one element/feature that supports movement of the sample container out of the movement path of the male tag toward the female part of the ear-tag.

A livestock location tracking system is used to establish a history of locations of livestock animals throughout their lifespan to determine time spent in pasture, in pens, at feed stations, and/or other locations of interest. The recordation of locations of livestock occurs within the context of a livestock management system that includes a management system platform, a remote computer system, one or more local sensors and/or transceivers, one or more advanced livestock tags, one or more basic livestock tags and/or enhanced basic livestock tags, and one or more mobile devices.

Systems and methods for tracking certain activities of a plurality of animals in a feedlot involve a plurality of RF asset tags attached to the plurality of animals and a plurality of RF detector stations that are operable to read unique identifier codes associated with each of the plurality of RF asset tags. Members of the plurality of RF detector stations are positioned, at least for some, proximate to at least one water trough and at least one feed trough, and are operable to transmit data concerning the RF asset tags detected over a communication link to an asset management subsystem. Duplicate signals may be reduced, signal filtered and smoothed, and energy conserved with certain approaches taken with the RF detector stations. Other systems and devices are presented.

A method of counting pigs or poultry includes mounting a camera at an alleyway through which the livestock pass with a width such that the livestock can pass at least two abreast and are free to turn to move in an opposite direction against the direction of travel before all livestock of the group complete their movement though the alleyway. An analysis of the images is carried out which takes into account errors caused by livestock which turn in the portion of the alleyway to move in the opposite direction temporarily before continuing to complete the travel through the portion of the single alleyway to the remote location and takes into account errors caused animals being side by side when passing through the portion of the single alleyway.

A livestock location tracking system is used to establish a history of locations of livestock animals throughout their lifespan to determine time spent in pasture, in pens, at feed stations, and/or other locations of interest. The recordation of locations of livestock occurs within the context of a livestock management system that includes a management system platform, a remote computer system, one or more local sensors and/or transceivers, one or more advanced livestock tags, one or more basic livestock tags and/or enhanced basic livestock tags, and one or more mobile devices.