Page 24 - AT

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 6 September 2019
British farm moo-ves into new tech with 5G collars on cows

By JAMES BROOKS and effort of checking on
Associated Press them individually.
SHEPTON MALLET, England The data can also be sent
(AP) — On the dairy farm to other people such as
of the future, the cows are veterinarians, who can
going wireless. monitor the state of the
The bovine residents of a herd's health in real time,
British agricultural technol- said Duncan Forbes, proj-
ogy research center are ect manager at the experi-
helping to test next gen- mental farm.
eration mobile technology Sensors and big data sets
aimed at helping make are also being used to
dairy farming more effi- monitor pigs, sheep, beef
cient. cattle, poultry and even
The herd's 180 cows are fit- fish. In a separate Agri-EPI
ted with wireless monitoring project dubbed Tail Tech,
collars that work like fitness data algorithms can inter-
trackers, recording their pret the mood of pigs by
movements and eating the angle of their tails using
habits, and sending data a camera over the pen.
to the cloud using fifth gen- For the milk cows at the
eration, or 5G, mobile net- In this photo taken on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019, project manager Duncan Forbes holds a English farm in Somerset,
work signals. smartphone showing biometric data on his cows at Agri-EPI Centre, a dairy development center the connected collars are
From there, an algorithm in Shepton Mallet, England. just one of a number of
analyzes the informa- Associated Press technologies increasing
tion, notifying farmers and Engineering Precision Inno- The next wave of innova- amid a geopolitical battle productivity.
veterinarians through a vation Centre. tion could come from 5G between the U.S. and Chi- When the cows decide
smartphone app if there "You can be at one end technology, which tele- na over concerns about they're ready to be milked,
are any fluctuations that of the building, you get an com experts say will bring the security of data on the a collar transponder identi-
could indicate an illness or alert, it's telling you exactly ultrafast download speeds new networks. fies them when they enter
other health condition that which cow it is, what the and reduced signal lag The center's experimental the robotic milking pen and
needs more attention. problem potentially is, and that promise to transform farm in Somerset, southwest keeps a digital tally of their
The goal is to boost pro- it's an instant assessment," industries. England, has built a 5G net- milk contribution.
ductivity and save man- said Gough, pulling out his New 5G networks will let work to send data from the At feeding time, an auto-
power by allowing farmers iPhone to check on cow many more devices con- collar sensors to the cloud, mated feeder glides over-
to keep an eye on their No. 866. nect to the internet, mak- bypassing the farm's slow head on ceiling-mounted
herds remotely. The app showed a spike in ing them better suited than broadband connection rails, dropping precise
"Having the data available activity that indicated the existing 4G networks for — a common problem for amounts of grass into a
to your phones, to mobile cow went into labor and handling lots of users or sen- rural internet users. The trial feeding trough.
devices, just makes it that calved overnight, without sors and heavy data traffic. is part of a national project, Forbes says the new tech-
much more accessible, any complications, he said. Wireless carriers in Europe partly funded by the U.K. nology has boosted perfor-
much quicker," explains Farms are no stranger to and elsewhere have just government. mance at the farm, which
Mark Gough, a herdsman technology, with robotic begun launching 5G ser- By sending the cows' data produces as much as 5,000
at the experimental farm milking systems and self- vice this year in a global to the cloud, farmers can liters (1,320 gallons) of milk
run by the British-govern- steering tractors now in rollout expected to take up use an app to monitor daily that's sold to a nearby
ment-backed Agricultural common use. to a decade, and comes each cow, saving the time cheesemaker.q

Huawei accuses U.S. of cyberattacks, coercing employees

By JOE McDONALD on use of Huawei technol- France and Ireland say
AP Business Writer ogy. they have no plans to ban
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Huawei Technologies Ltd. any supplier.
telecom equipment mak- is the No. 2 global smart- Huawei, headquartered in
er Huawei accused U.S. phone brand and the the southern city of Shen-
authorities on Wednesday biggest maker of network zhen, gave no evidence
of attempting to break gear for phone compa- to support its accusations.
into its information systems nies. A company spokesman
and of trying to coerce its Export controls an- said he had no additional
employees to gather infor- nounced by the Trump details.
mation on the company. administration in May The accusations were in-
Huawei, which faces would limit Huawei’s ac- cluded in a statement
mounting American pres- cess to U.S. technology. about an unrelated pat-
sure including possible loss In this July 30, 2019, file photo a woman walks by a Huawei Implementation has been ent dispute in the United
of access to U.S. technol- retail store in Beijing. Associated Press postponed to mid-No- States.
ogy over accusations the vember. U.S. President Donald
company is a security risk, business. cusations the company Washington is lobbying Trump declined to re-
said in a statement that American officials have denies. The United States, European governments spond to the allegations
Washington has used “un- given no evidence to sup- Australia, Japan and to exclude Huawei from when asked about them
scrupulous means” in re- port claims Huawei might some other governments next-generation tele- on Wednesday by a re-
cent months to disrupt its aid Chinese spying, ac- have imposed restrictions com networks. Germany, porter. q