Case Study: How We Developed The App For Cattle Breeding

In the last years, livestock farming has drastically changed due to intensively integrating technologies. The matter is that smart electronics and software are exactly what makes cattle breeding so productive. Our customers need to monitor their cattle herds, their condition, fertility, number etc. So it is impossible to do it qualitatively without information technologies. That is where demand for mobile application development services comes in.

If you are engaged in livestock farming, you have to consider many factors for successful breeding of cows and oxen. Animals require a constant monitoring since as all live creatures they are prone to environmental conditions, they may get sick, and unfortunately, they cant inform you about it. There are many modern ways to monitor your livestock to avoid such unpleasant situations.

• Cattle movement monitoring. Sometimes your cows or horses can go beyond the bounds of their pasture. Many farms of today install RFID tags on the cattle to monitor their location. New RFID tags use Bluetooth technology with the radius of action up to 100 meters (provided that it is battery powered). Using these tags, the farmer will always know where the herd is.
• Health monitoring. Special sensors installed on the ear of an animal measure temperature. It sends the notification to farmers smartphone or tablet if some parameters change. For example, the temperature change is the first symptom of the upcoming disease. If one solves this problem in the very beginning, such measures can prevent another cow from getting sick. In turn, cow welfare directly influences it's fertility.  
• Cows pregnancy monitoring. Invasive and noninvasive sensors which are installed either inside a cow stomach or hooked on the tail. It allows farmers to monitor the whole period of pregnancy. Thus, if something is going wrong, the farmer gets the alert and calls the veterinarian. In addition, when the cow is in labor, rancher takes appropriate steps to help the successful delivery of the offspring.  
• IT platforms for farming. To use all the gadgets above, you need to have the required mobile apps for this since it cannot work without proprietary software. Many various apps are used both for checking of certain features and for optimization of the whole process of cattle breeding. 

The main goal of all this equipment is to improve cattle breeding and make it optimal using smart devices.

Every new order to build a website or the new app is a great experience and challenge for us! So when we obtained the new task for the farming app, we are prepared to apply all our skills and professionalism to amaze and inspire our customer.

Our client was the farmer from d, Poland. He has been in cattle breeding for 12 years and recently he co-founded his own farm. It was rather large and numbered about 100 cows heads. Perhaps, this figure has increased by now. So even despite the fact farmer had a team of assistants, it was still awkward for him to monitor all farming processes.

He realized that only IT technologies could help him. And that was the point where we met him and provided with all necessary solutions he needed.

During the first stage of the app development, our mission is to understand all clients requirements and decide how to implement them. The client sent us by email his vision of the future mobile app. And as his own gadgets are running on Android OS, he mentioned that he needed app exactly for his Android tablet. The farmer wanted the app for optimization of the whole breeding process but since he was not a specialist in IT area, he hasnt even imagined how the app could be built. That is where our experience came in.

Considered this, we have drawn up our scheme of the future app and submitted it to the clients review. Then, having received his feedback, we added some changes, settled organizational issues and started working.

According to the clients demands, we equipped the app with the following features:

The function suite wasnt new but the client needed something special that could meet exactly his requirements. That is why he addressed to us.

• API level 9. Set of programming tools that allow the client to use Android versions starting from 2.1.
• RX Java. Library for composing of the programming code.
• Retrofit 2. HTTP-client for working with API in client-server apps.
• Dagger 2. Library for implementation of programming patterns.
• Bluetooth LE. Wireless network technology for data collection

The whole development process took almost 1.5 month, and eventually, the client was satisfied. At the moment he is more than just pleased with the new app for cattle breeding. According to him, it has become a real magic wand! The client left his detailed feedback where he described his opinion concerning the new app. The farmer and his assistants always know what is going on on the farm, whether everything is going well etc. This app has become the new era in the farming business. And it is our main goal - to simplify peoples life.

It was not our first project in farming, but during the development process, we acquired new inestimable experience. The success of our company is the team of equally-minded persons who are interconnected by one principle - to create innovative products and change the face of business. You can always contact us and we will explain to you everything in detail. We love our job, we really enjoy making our world better, more interesting and mobile!