Herding with a Mobile Phone Keeps Sheep from Getting Lost and Boosts Income

Pei Xiaofei (left) is fitting a locator on a sheep.

With a mobile phone, Pei Xiaofei can track the flock's walking mileage and route for the day.

After fitting the locators, Pei Xiaofei drives the flock out of the pen.

In the evening, when it is time for the flock to return to the pen, he opens WeChat on his mobile phone and enters the electronic fence herding system, and real-time information such as the real-time location of the flock, the day's walking distance and the flock's movement track of Pei Xiaofei, a herder in Sonid Left Banner, Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia, is displayed on the mobile phone.

Based on the flock's location information on the electronic map, Pei Xiaofei gets on his motorcycle and heads straight to where the flock is, finding them in about 10 minutes. Every morning he lets the sheep out of the pen and every evening drives them back. Since he started using the sheep satellite positioning and tracking system last year, Pei Xiaofei has saved a great deal of time.

Sonid Left Banner is a comprehensive reform demonstration pilot for rural and pastoral areas in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Through the implementation of the "smart pasture" project, the production method of herders has undergone a qualitative change, and satellite positioning of flock movement is only one aspect of it.

The new grassland automated breeding and monitoring technology based on the Internet of Things includes functional equipment such as a monitoring terminal platform, weather unit, pen unit, supplementary feeding shed unit, vital signs monitoring unit, as well as GPS mobile positioning and wireless network systems.

"Apart from driving the sheep back to the pen, all the other work can be done with a mobile phone!" Pei Xiaofei turns on the computer. Every sheep has a digital ID card matching its ear tag number, with a corresponding photo, and the sheep's entire growth from lambing to finishing can be traced and queried. Around the sheds and pens, the conditions of the sheep pens and pasture can be monitored in real time by video, and the system can also monitor and provide warnings on indicators such as pasture temperature, humidity, ammonia gas and water quality. Using the main platform, one can control the shed lighting system, the drinking trough switch, the automatic shed door, flock GPS positioning and monitoring of the surrounding grassland environment.

Long Yunpeng, director of the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Comprehensive Reform Office of Sonid Left Banner, explained that previously the positioning system could only provide the flock's movement track. In 2016, on the basis of the original system, an electronic map was also delineated for the herders' pastures, so that the pasture boundaries of each household are clearly identifiable. All that is needed is to put a locator on the lead sheep's neck, and when the flock moves on the pasture, its location is clear at a glance. "The original intention of building this system was to provide basic data for traceable mutton, proving that the sheep were raised under natural grazing conditions. Our ultimate goal is, through the traceability system, to achieve premium prices for premium mutton, thereby increasing herders' income."

"Last year, the price of traceable mutton was 2-3 yuan per kilogram higher than the market price. My family sold more than 400 sheep, and our income increased by about 10,000 yuan." Pei Xiaofei gave a thumbs-up and talked on and on, detailing the benefits of high-tech herding. "In the past, the cost of hiring a long-term shepherd for me each year was about 50,000 yuan. Now with this system, manpower is greatly saved. Without hiring anyone, all the saved expenses have turned into net income. This is something I never dared to imagine in the past."