Cattle Industry Turns to Robot Herders
Source:New Public Radio
From:Taiwan Trade Center Chicago
Update Time:2019/01/21
The cattle industry has long struggled with employee injuries. It is not a matter of worker or even company negligence, rather it is an inherent risk when the work involves herding 1,600-pound Angus steers. The work is simply very dangerous. According to a report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics 1,360 workers were injured by cattle in 2017. Sometimes injuries from livestock can be fatal. To combat these issues, a slaughter operations manager at Cargill Meat Solutions redesigned a Russian made robot to herd cattle. Cargill Meat Solutions customized the robot to the work of moving livestock by adding a strong metal exterior and other utilizing an MP3 player to play recordings of noises to drive the cattle forward. The company tested the effectiveness of the robot in their Nebraska and Pennsylvania locations, proving that the robot could be used to herd cattle. Robotics are being used with increasing frequency in dairies and feedlots. Partly because it keeps humans out of dangerous situations, but also because most human workers are no longer interested in taking those kinds of jobs with livestock. However, it is wrong to think that humans have been completely replaced in cattle herding positions. A robotic cattle driver can cost up to $50,000 meaning that it is not yet feasible to use only robots for livestock herding at this time. Still, as costs for robotic technology goes down it is likely that more livestock companies will move to robot herders as a means of keeping their workers safe.
Source :New Public Radio
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/27/666991079/cargill-tests-robotic-cattle-driver-as-a-way-to-improve-worker-safety