New technology in tagging is potentially branching out in usages, allowing farmers to do more than prevent diseases in their livestock.

While the tags are still yet to to be NLIS compatible, CERES TAG CEO David Smith said the tags use similar satellite technology that Apple use for their new iPhone 14 for emergency messaging, and can be used for more than disease prevention.

"The reason why we feel satellites are useful is because a large amount livestock throughout the world are in regional to very remote locations, and the establishment of infrastructure to be able to get the communications to a device that's on the animal is impractical to say the least," he said.

Mr. Smith said the tags, developed in collaboration with CSIRO, could also switch countries and monitor live exports through to their destination to maintain animal welfare.

He also referred to an independent study into farm crime released in September by the University of New England (UNE) that used CERES RANCH tags.

It included a mock theft where data was monitored from 20 tagged sheep as they were moved from farms in Armidale to Tamworth.

Read more at Stock and Land.