The case of yak implementation in Naqu, Xizang
In the pasture of Luogang Village, Seni District, Nagqu City, at an altitude of 4,500 meters, Danzeng Luobu, a herdsman, gently tapped the Tibetan-Chinese bilingual mobile phone APP, and immediately the real-time location of his 128 yaks popped up on the screen – these yaks, wearing silver-gray smart ear tags, were scattered 5 kilometers away on the summer grassland, grazing on the grass. In the past, to find a cow, one had to ride a motorcycle over three mountains. When encountering a snowstorm, one couldn’t sleep all night. Now, looking at the phone is like “cloud grazing”, and the incident of losing a cow has never happened again. Danzeng Luobu’s sentiment stems from the smart animal husbandry pilot project that Fenglan Intelligent has collaborated on with the local government.
As the core technical support provider for the 121 million yuan smart animal husbandry system construction in Seni District, Fenglan Intelligent has customized and developed smart ear tags and collar devices integrating Beidou positioning and low-power sensing for the special scenarios of the Nagqu Plateau, which are extremely cold, have low signals and vast grasslands. This device is equipped with a -40 ℃ ultra-low temperature battery life chip and an anti-ultraviolet silicone shell. The ear tags weighing only 7 grams can work continuously for more than two years. Combined with distributed base station networking, it can achieve real-time data transmission even in the uninhabited areas of northern Xizang. At present, among the 3,798 pilot yaks in Luogang Village, 1,200 have been equipped with smart devices for their pens, covering all 83 herding households in the village.
Not only can it prevent loss, but it can also serve as a “health sentinel”. The Danzeng Luobu sliding APP displays data curves. The high-precision sensor built into the ear tag monitors the yak’s body temperature in real time with an error of 0.3℃. The motion sensor captures the feeding frequency and activity level. After analysis by the Fenglan intelligent AI algorithm, it automatically generates estrus warnings and disease risk alerts. Since the beginning of summer this year, the detection time of respiratory diseases in yaks in the village has been 48 hours earlier than in previous years, the cure rate has increased to 92%, and the cost of treating a single yak has decreased by more than 600 yuan. In response to the problem of “fragmentation” of grasslands in Nagqu, the Fenglan Intelligent Cloud Platform has also integrated grassland carrying capacity data and automatically planned rotational grazing routes, helping herders reduce forage waste by 30%.
In the first half year of the project’s implementation, Fenglan Intelligent’s technical solution has demonstrated multiple benefits: the loss rate of pilot yaks has dropped from 12% in previous years to 1.5%, the average milk production has increased by 18%, and the average daily grazing time for herders has been shortened from 8 hours to 2 hours. “Previously, feeding was based on feeling. Now, the system will recommend the proportion according to the data. Yaks are stronger and the purchase price has increased by 1.2 yuan per jin.” ” In the account book of herdsman Basang, the income increase brought about by technology is clearly recorded – in June alone, the sales revenue of his yak milk increased by 3,200 yuan. The person in charge of Fenglan Intelligent Project stated that in the next step, they will combine the “Three Herders Linkage” development plan of Nagqu and expand the coverage of the equipment to 12 towns in Seni District, enabling more herders to enjoy the dividends of digital animal husbandry.