Bluetooth technology to assess sheep access to winter feeding supplementation in extensive systems

Sheep production in extensive systems is subject to several challenges linked to welfare, climatic and geographical conditions, animal performance, rural connectivity and social fabric, to name a few. The TechCare project, funded by the EU H2020 research and innovation programme (grant 862050) identified undernutrition during winter as one of the main welfare priorities for meat sheep in UK systems, where animals are grazed outside most of the year on poor quality mountain pastures. The introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) and low power wide area (LPWA) networks alongside with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology present interesting opportunities to monitor animals in extensive systems. This abstract presents results from a trial held in Scotland in Jan-Feb 2022, where 100 grazing ewes (50 Scottish Blackface, 50 Lleyn) were fitted with BLE beacons (Feasybeacons 4.2). Receivers (14) were positioned above feed resources (4 on hay feeders and 4 above molasses buckets) and on posts (6) in a 40 ha mountain pasture. Each beacon transmits a unique ID, with the BLE receivers reporting these IDs along with the beacon’s RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). Over a 5-min duty cycle, the BLE reader was programmed to report the identity and RSSI of 16 beacons with the strongest signal for that duty cycle. Results showed that the technology allows for a clear differentiation in different groups of ewes, and the BLE system was able to detect daily rhythms in the ewes. Additionally, the readers were able to detect the presence or absence of particular ewes in their vicinity over time. This can allow the development of thresholds (green/amber/red) to identify animals which are always or never read by the BLE readers, or which present changes in their daily rhythms, due for example to welfare issues or disturbance. The technology shows promising opportunities for sheep monitoring in extensive areas.