Application case analysis of radio frequency identification technology in animal management in animal husbandry

In the past 10 years, animal epidemics have continued to break out all over the world, which has severely hit the animal husbandry industry in the world, especially in Europe, and has attracted great attention from all countries in the world, especially European countries, prompting governments to quickly formulate policies and adopt various methods. measure. For this reason, countries all over the world have strengthened the management of animals in animal husbandry and commerce, and the identification and tracking of animals has become one of the major measures taken by countries. For example, the British government stipulates that various tracking and identification methods must be adopted for cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, horses and other breeding animals.

1. Identification and tracking of animals

Animal identification and tracking refers to a technology that uses a specific tag to correspond to the animal to be identified by a certain technical means, and can track and manage the relevant attributes of the animal at any time.

The identification and tracking of various animals can strengthen the control and supervision of foreign animal diseases, protect the safety of native species and ensure the safety of international trade in livestock products; it can strengthen the government's vaccination and disease prevention management of animals, and improve the protection of animals. Disease diagnosis and reporting capabilities, and emergency response to domestic and foreign animal epidemics. Therefore, the identification and tracking management of animals is not only the need of animal husbandry, but also a national government behavior and an international behavior. The following introduces the identification and tracking of cattle, pigs and sheep respectively.

Identification and tracking of cattle

At present, a tracking system for cattle has been established in Europe. In September 1998, the UK announced plans for a cattle tracking system. At the end of 1999, all member states of the European Community implemented this system plan.

The British government stipulates that cattle born or imported after July 1, 2000 must be identified digitally. Cattle identification and registration includes aspects such as identification, farm records and licences. The identification tag must be installed within 20 days after the birth of the cow. The identification tag has the identification code of the cow, and this identification code will accompany the cow throughout its life. In the farm records there are full details of each cow's birth, import, movement and death. Each cow has a CTS license, which Stores the full record of the cow's life. CTS is a computerized system for tracking and managing cattle established in the United Kingdom, and the British government paid for its establishment and initial use.

Identification and tracking of pigs

From November 1, 2003, the UK began to implement new pig identification standards. The new standard has different identification requirements for all pigs under + years of age sent directly to the slaughterhouse and pigs over one year of age sent to any other destination.

Identification and tracking of sheep

Since January 1, 2008, the European regulations have mandated the electronic identification of sheep. In order to verify the working performance of the electronic identification system, Delta will start a real-time electronic identification and digital transmission test in a real environment in March 2004. Farmers, ranches and slaughterhouses will choose different electronic identification systems. The test program ended in March 2005 and the report was submitted in June of the same year.

In addition, the British government also stipulates that starting from June 30, 2004, all horses must be identified and tracked.

At present, widely used animal identification methods include: ear tags, back tags, necklaces, tail tags, freeze prints, tattoos, paint tags and leg tags, etc. The practice of animal electronic identification in recent years shows that radio frequency identification (Radio Frequency IdenTification, RFID) among the electronic identification methods plays an increasingly important role in animal management.

2. Radio frequency identification RFID technology

Radio frequency identification is a non-contact automatic identification technology, which has the characteristics of large data storage capacity, readable and writable, strong penetrating power, long reading and writing distance, fast reading speed, long service life, and good environmental adaptability. And it is the only automatic recognition technology that can realize multi-target recognition.

RFID consists of a reader (reader) and an electronic tag (Tag). Attach the electronic tag to the surface or inside of the identified object (such as an animal), and when the recognized object (such as an animal) enters the recognition range of the reader, the reader automatically reads the object in the electronic tag (such as Animal) identification data, so as to realize the function of automatically identifying objects (such as animals) or automatically collecting information and data of objects (such as animals).

(1) Reader

The RFID Reader is composed of modules such as a control system, a communication interface, a microstrip antenna, and a power supply. Handheld reader (Handheld reader, HR) is a kind of reader among them, and it is suitable for mobile user to hold and use, and its working principle is exactly the same as other readers. In addition to the modules of general readers, it can also have LCD keyboard and barcode scanning modules. HR communication interface can choose 802.11, RS323. The power supply voltage of HR is powered by a rechargeable battery; the operating system can be WinCE or other operating systems; the data storage is 32MB flash memory and 32MB internal memory; the antenna is a built-in antenna or a probe detector.

(2) Electronic tags

The electronic tag is composed of modules such as data storage, data processing, communication interface, microstrip antenna and power supply. The electronic tag writes the ID code and the relevant information of the item. Electronic tags are divided into passive electronic tags and active electronic tags according to different power supply forms. The power supply of passive electronic tags is obtained from the radio frequency signal sent by the reader, so the reader must have a higher transmission power and a shorter recognition distance. Active electronic tags are powered by their own micro-batteries, so the requirements for the reader's transmission power are low, and the system's recognition distance is relatively long. Compared with active electronic tags, passive electronic tags have the advantages of low cost, no maintenance, high reliability and long life. In the identification and tracking of animals, most of them use passive electronic tags except for special scientific research that uses active electronic tags.