The purpose of the 'electronic animal ID' is to systematically document and keep track of the individual life history of domestic animals like cattle and pigs - from producer to consumer. To this end, Siemens Automation & Drives (A&D) is involved jointly with the Bundesdruckerei, and the companies Infineon and Orga, in a feasibility study commissioned by the State of Schleswig-Holstein. The animal ID is designed to improve disease prevention and to support farmers in breeding, health maintenance and stock monitoring. The Bundesdruckerei has assumed leadership of the project that was first presented to the public during the 'Green week' (International Exhibition for the Food Industry, Agriculture and Horticulture, 11 to 20 January 2002 in Berlin) at the 'quality gate' booth of Schleswig-Holstein's Ministry of Rural Areas, Regional Planning, Agriculture and Tourism. The official presentation by Schleswig-Holstein's Minister-President, Heide Simonis, took place on 13 January.
The animals to be monitored are identified by means of a plastic tag containing their individual life history. The plastic tag is secured to the ear tag that cattle and pigs are already required to have in Germany. This does not constitute any additional stress for the animal. Proximity-type RF (radio frequency) identification technology is used to read or write to the plastic tags, either by means of a handheld reader or as the animals pass through a 'quality gate'.
As one of the project partners, Siemens A&D supplies the identification technology for the plastic tags: Siemens has years of experience in this field and has already developed a range of systems for the most varied applications - principally in industrial production and logistics. In these areas, as in the case of the electronic animal ID, there are increased requirements on proximity-type identification systems, such as imperviousness to contamination and fluctuations in temperature. Under the product name Moby, Siemens offers several application-specific identification systems that can be used under the harshest of production and environmental conditions. In industrial production, Moby is used, for example, for workpiece carriers and tools in assembly lines, in logistics and distribution for, say, containers, boxes and cargo carriers, and in transport applications such as metros and suburban rail systems.
The transmission range is between a few centimetres and three meters, depending on the system.
Craig Hudson, Siemens Automation & Drives
(011) 652 3739
About Siemens A&D
The Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D), Nuremberg/Erlangen, Germany, is a leading manufacturer in this field worldwide. Products supplied by A&D include standard products for the manufacturing and process industries and for the electrical installation industry as well as system solutions, for example for machine tools, and solutions for whole industries such as the automation of entire automobile factories or chemical plants. Supplementing this range of products and services, A&D also offers software tools for linking production and management (vertical IT integration). A&D employs 54 600 people worldwide and in fiscal year 2001 (to 30 September) earned a pre-tax profit of Euro 981 million on sales of Euro 8,9 billion and orders of Euro 9,1 billion.
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