CattleQuants: Pairing AI with Drones to Monitor Livestock.

 Article and photo provided by CattleQuants.

 Drones are quickly becoming a common tool in many cattlemen’s toolboxes.  Flying a drone to check on cattle can save cattle producers time, as well as wear and tear on vehicles driving over rugged terrain.

CattleQuants offers cattlemen technology to count cattle on feedlots and ranches with 99.9% accuracy and to measure silage and commodity volumes via drone.  Customers use their cattle inventory technology to check cattle inventories on large pastures on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, especially in places where theft is rampant.  On feedlots their cattle inventory product is often used to count pens prior to shipping, as well as for end-of-year audits and bank loan collateral verification.

Once a cattle producer has a drone, he/she typically finds many uses for it.  CattleQuants creates automated flight missions so that ranchers can fly drones to check water levels, fences, or feed bunks by the push of a button.  “Flying a drone no longer requires skill,” says Meir Ginsburg, CEO of CattleQuants.  “All you need to do is press Fly and keep an eye on the sky to make sure that the drone doesn’t crash into a tall tree or low-flying aircraft.”

Despite their name, CattleQuants is not exclusively for cattle.  They count other livestock, like sheep and bison, and perform population estimates for wildlife such as elk and sage grouse in the northeastern United States and kangaroos in Australia.

With customers in 8 countries across 4 continents, CattleQuants’ inventory product is priced to be affordable even in poorer countries like South Africa and Mexico.

About CattleQuants
CattleQuants was founded in 2017 by Shoshana Ginsburg, PhD, a Colorado native, and her husband Meir.  Trained as a biomedical engineer, Shoshana was teaching computers to automatically detect and characterize cancerous tumors on medical images using AI and machine learning when she stumbled into the ag industry.  She watched the burgeoning drone industry and knew that drones would not be especially useful unless the images and data acquired by the drones are inspected automatically.  

“It’s really easy to acquire gigabytes of data when utilizing drones”, Shoshana points out.  “And if that data has to be analyzed by human eyes, the drone hasn’t added any measure of efficiency.  Instead of spending time on the ground, the same time is spent in the office reviewing the drone data.  In order for drones to make a producer more efficient, the drone data needs to be analyzed automatically using AI.”  That’s where CattleQuants comes in: pairing drones with AI to automate tedious cattle monitoring exercises.

Preparing for the Future
“We are super excited about the future”, says Shoshana, Chief Technology Officer at CattleQuants.  “Within the next six months the drones we work with will be fully autonomous.  Imagine having a drone check on your fences and report any breaks to you without you having to lift a finger.”

CattleQuants is now developing feed bunk reading technologies and developing AI software to enable off-the-shelf drones to monitor the health and weight of cattle.

CattleQuants is preparing to raise a $3 million investment round.  They are looking for cattlemen who are interested in investing in their company and in this technology.  Rather than looking to Silicon Valley for investment funds, Shoshana and Meir believe strongly that the technology needs to be financially backed by cattlemen in order for it to truly meet the needs of cattlemen.