The main goal of the project is to create a product series/system that facilitates the management of farm animals, which improves animal health monitoring, animal finding and location identification, as well as animal data archiving and reporting to various parties. The second goal is to further develop the development skills of small active (self-sending) health data collection devices.
The predecessor of the project is the concept of a subcutaneous implant for cattle, created as a development of the Estonian Dairy Cluster (EDC), with which it is possible to determine the animal’s body temperature in real time without any human intervention.
Most of the solutions on the market focus only on monitoring the cow’s period. Wisecow Health allows you to monitor the health status and well-being of the animal throughout its entire life span, from the first days to death. The added ability to cover the calving period, off-farm transport, etc. is important. The development of the Wisecow Find applications is guided by a logical on-farm workflow. This allows you to save more than half of the time of farm workers, which is spent searching for animals. This leaves more time for dealing with animals and ensuring their well-being.
The Wisecow project is implemented by the EDC and research partners Celvia CC AS and the Estonian University of Life Sciences. The planned work will last from April 2022 to June 2025. The project is part of the cross-border European Innovation Partnership (EIP) cooperation led by the EDC with the Finnish Oulu-Kajaani EIP working group. That cooperation is the first time that the EIP working groups have collaborated trans-nationally cross-border. An overview of the EDC EIP working group can be found on a separate website.
The project budget is 394,494.44 euros, of which 349,494.45 is support from measure 16.2 of the Estonian Rural Development Plan 2014–2020 and 44,499.99 euros is self-financing.