Cattle rustling is on the rise in Africa,but not limited to Africa. Farmers losing livestock to rustlers have increased,and a solution to curb this trend has emerged.
The solution is the use of technology, via tracking devices .It is a crime evoking bushrangers and cattle duffers of old, but stock theft has become a modern crime and researchers are hoping to find a technological solution.
A team from Central Queensland University (CQU) in Rockhampton believes a motion-sensing GPS device may hold the clue.The device detects mustering activity and sends a message to a grazier's phone.
Researchers hope it might hold the answer to reducing cattle rustling which, according to the 2001/2002 National Farm Crime Survey, affected 6 per cent of farms at an estimated annual cost of $16 million.
Project leader Associate Professor Mark Trotter said preliminary trials had been promising.
"The core technology already exists so things like GPS tracking and motion-sensing tracking [are] a little bit like a fitbit that you see people wearing," Dr Trotter said. continue
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