Chitale Dairy Uses RFID to Improve Milk Yields

After several years of testing a system that combines radio frequency identification and cell phones to record and track the health and nutrition of cows and water buffaloes on Indian farms, Chitale Dairy, in Bhilawadi, has significantly increased its animals' health and productivity. In fact, Chitale reports, since the dairy began utilizing the system, the animals' milk yields have increased and are now three to four times higher than the national average.

The reason for this increased yield, the systems' developers say, is that Chitale can now better manage the visits of the service providers it sends to those farms, as well as store a greater amount of resulting information about the visits and the services administered, or the observations made during those visits, such as vaccinations, calf delivery, medications or simply the volume of milk produced by a particular cow. The system was developed by researchers at Bombay Veterinary College. Because of that success, a company known as Infovet is now marketing the system's software to dairies throughout India and other parts of the world. Animal identification technology company Allflex India provides the tags and readers for this solution.