September 30, 2020

 

Cattle facial recognition database being developed at Kansas State University

 


Kansas State University researchers are using artificial intelligence to build a facial recognition technology database for the cattle industry, which could identify livestock with desired traits and increase biosecurity for the cattle industry.

 

KC Olson, a beef cattle scientist with K-State Research and Extension who has helped to develop the idea, said the system has an incremental cost that is close to zero. Nobody will be forced to use it, but he said there will be economic incentives provided by the beef industry to participate.

 

Olson said the technology is based on the geometry of the human face, which eventually may lead to a national animal disease traceability system. He said the this could protect the industry against animal disease from overseas or possible wrongdoing by an enemy of the country.

 

The idea was discussed in late-2019 by Olson and a team of K-State experts in computer engineering, veterinary medicine and animal science, with research involving the creation of short panoramic view videos of 1,000 feeder cattle heads.

 

Computer engineers used the video to analyse individual cattle heads and uploaded it to a neural network. Olson said the network identified critical cattle biometric measurements.

 

The Kansas State University team recently tested the network's reliability by uploading cattle images already in the system and those not in the system. The technology was 94% accurate.

 

Olson said the limitation is the database small size. The neural network is more accurate if there is a larger data pool, which means the participation of the domestic beef industry is important to create a robust system.

 

The university is working with Black Hereford Holdings to create Cattletracs, a smartphone app for producers to upload photos of their cattle.

 

Olson said the livestock can be entered to the database anytime, from the first point of sale, after leaving its ranch to anytime after. Producers aren't obligated to enter this national disease traceability system.

 

Olson added the system could be expanded to most mammalian livestock species, such as dairy cattle and swine.

 

-      Kansas State University

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