Salt Stone Reader

The saltstone reader is placed at the entrance of an enclosed area where the animals go to lick the saltstone. The saltstone reader will record the animal ID by reading their RFID eartags when they pass by the reader. The recordings are sent through the phone network to the BioControl server, and the user can go to our webpage to see the recorded readings. The saltstone reader uses a solar panel and a battery to store energy, and can therefore be placed in an area without access to electricity. Animals that have not been recorded lately are marked in red, and lambs that are not following their mother are also marked in red.

Users of the Saltsone Readers that wish to check their recordings can click here.

Our saltstone reader will help you make more efficient inspections and keep an overview of your grazing sheep. The reader will read the RFID tags of the sheep when they pass the reader, and the information is sent through the phone network to our server. You are given access to recordings made by your saltstone reader(s) through our webpage. On the webpage you can see the recordings that have been made by the saltstone reader, to see when or if the animals have been in the area.

You can also see irregularities of where the sheep are grazing or which animals are grazing together.

By easily being able to gather recorded information from your computer, you can spend less time on trips to the grazing areas where there are no sheep, have more efficient gathering of sheep, and follow up on lams that have been rejected by their mother.

Many countries demand recording of losses before compensation for losses due to predators are given. The saltstone reader can be one tool for recording when and where the sheep was last seen. It can also show which sheep were grazing together, if a group of sheep were lost and you only managed to find the remains of some sheep. However, we cannot guarantee that the saltstone reader will give compensation in your case. Please contact your local authorities to discuss how the saltstone reader information can help document your losses.

It is possible to add a one-way-gate to the entrance of the saltstone area where the saltstone reader is located. In this way sheep will be able to enter but not exit the salt stone area, and by following the recordings on the saltstone reader logs you can see if sheep have passed the readers, when they passed and who passed. You can then plan the gathering of the sheep more efficiently.

The saltstone reader is a steel construction with a RFID reader technology. A solar panel gathers electricity for the saltstone reader, and it can therefore be placed in remote areas without access to electricity. The electricity is stored in a battery, and the reader will be in “sleep mode” when no sheep are passing to save as much electricity as possible. Two photocells will be activated when the sheep pass the reader and will read the RFID tags. The information is sent through the phone network with a GPRS modem. The reader therefore needs to be placed in an area with phone network coverage, and preferably in a sunny area. These are the only two requirements for the reader to function efficiently. If electricity is available in the area it is possible to connect it to a power outlet directly instead of using the solar panel.

Many farmers having grazing sheep in the same area can also go together and use one saltstone reader(s) for several herds.

The recordings shown on our webpage shows animals that have not been recorded, and also show sheep with their lambs to see if a lamb is not following its mother. You can therefore see if a mother has abandoned its lamb, or if some sheep might be missing.

On our webpage you can choose to see recordings of:

• All animals on all readers, also non-registered animals 
• All recorded animals
• All non-recorded animals
• Mothers and lams (see example in pictures to the right with red circle)
• Recordings on one animal (specify animal number) on all readers
• Recordings from one reader (specify reader)
• Recordings from a group of readers

All readings can also be chosen to be seen from a time interval or from a specific date. For now these pages are in Norwegian, but can be easily translated to English if English speaking customers want to use our system.

This tool does not substitute proper inspection of the grazing area, and is just a tool for making your inspections more efficient! Make sure you regularly inspect your grazing sheep!