The system uses a sophisticated video monitoring system, which needed to be ‘taught’ what cattle look like.

THE ancient art of counting cattle has received a high-tech upgrade in a unique trial in northern Australia.

A Livestock Export Program (LEP) project jointly funded by LiveCorp and MLA has adapted artificial intelligence developed for the European pig industry to the task of recognising and counting individual Brahman cattle and estimating their weights.

The first trial, conducted at Broome, WA, counted cattle with 99 percent accuracy, and estimated the weights of individual cattle with 90pc accuracy.

A second trial is now being planned to test the system’s performance under dynamic, real-world live export conditions during the loading of a cattle ship in Australia and unloading in-market.

The technology also has the potential to provide insights into animal performance during export voyages and through supply chains.

A LiveCorp spokesperson said the algorithm is expected to improve further as the AI learns more about cattle, different weight ranges and Australian conditions.

The AI works off a camera installed above a race or similar infrastructure which limits the number of cattle moving through the video at any one time.

The camera is connected to the AI interface, which for the first trial was set up remotely by technology developer PigBrother.

The model can adapt to understand a site’s specific conditions, and then it works offline.

The project was part of the LEP’s Open Innovation approach to research which taps into the expertise of the booming global agri-tech sector to help solve industry challenges.

• Click here to read the final report from the first technology trial in Broome. 
• To book tickets to attend the LIVEXchange 2025 conference in Perth on November 26-27 click here