HECTAR has entered into a partnership with ITK, a high-tech company that explores and offers agricultural monitoring solutions to facilitate livestock monitoring and decision making.
To achieve the objective of resilience while at the same time being part of the environmental transition, HECTAR's livestock team is resolutely calling on innovation and technology. For example, in the livestock sector, HECTAR has entered into a partnership with ITK, a high-tech company that explores and offers agricultural monitoring solutions to facilitate livestock monitoring and decision-making. Four questions to Marie Desmaison, in charge of livestock deployment at ITK.
We provide our connected monitoring solution which detects events affecting reproduction, feeding, health and the animal's well-being. In concrete terms, the sixty cows in the Godets herd will be equipped with ITK's connected collars. Each collar records the animal's movements and the ITK algorithm interprets them based on big data. The herd manager can follow the behaviour of each of his cows in real time, individually and in relation to the rest of the herd. He receives alerts directly on his smartphone on events requiring the most urgent action (heat, calving).
Direct feedback from farmers on our tool is very useful to us. This is why we have set up a pool of pilot farms, which the Godets farm has now joined. What is particularly interesting for us is that the Godets farm is exclusively grazing - which is rare on this scale - and is oriented towards regenerative practices. So the feedback will enrich our data and contribute to improving our tool, particularly in the context of conservation agriculture practices. By vocation, ITK is open to new paths and new approaches and integrates sustainable development into its tools.
As soon as resources are optimised, these three requirements are met. The detection of heat allows to optimise inseminations, which means important savings for the breeder. This tool also contributes to the animal's well-being: the collar detects behaviours that indicate a discomfort situation (unsuitable feed changes, pathologies, heat stress), and allows the animal to be relieved as quickly as possible. This is good for the animal, but also for the farmer, because a potential cause of loss of productivity will have been treated earlier. If a pathology in a cow is detected early on and the animal is treated in time, the chances are good that the animal will not have to undergo pharmaceutical treatment. This makes it possible to preserve the herd, and therefore ultimately to optimise the economy of the farm.
It will be very interesting for us to get feedback from HECTAR, which wants to validate an attractive operating model that respects the quality of life of farmers. For example, the collar detects when the cows are in heat, which makes it possible to organise inseminations efficiently. It also warns of approaching calving, which is a stressful time for the farmer. In general, the ITK monitoring tool saves the farmer a lot of time and effort in planning his work. This is a decisive factor for the quality of life, and therefore the future of the breeder's profession.
