Cattle theft is estimated to cost Australian farmers millions of dollars every year. A Melbourne-based innovator has developed a clever solution to help tackle the problem.
Dr Phillip Zada and Anna Zada (left) accept their iAward from South Australian Deputy Premier Susan Close. Photo: Meaghan Coles Photography
“Essentially, we do facial recognition for cows.” That’s how Dr Phillip Zada describes his winning solution, Stoktake. “With Stoktake, a cow that is stolen in NSW and then gets re-sold in the Northern Territory can be picked up as a stolen animal, just by using a phone to take a photo of it,” Phillip says.
Stoktake boasts a 99.65% identification accuracy, and its these results that helped propel it to top spot in the Start-up and Trailblazer categories at the 2024 iAwards.
Muzzle key to tech accuracy
Stoktake isn’t the first facial recognition technology for cows. Earlier technology captured the cow’s entire face, but it couldn’t always identify cows that looked very similar, including the all-black Angus breed. However, Stoktake’s technology focuses on the muzzle, which is a unique identifier for cows, much like the fingerprint is to a human.
Apart from some “secret sauce”, Phillip says the technology is quite simple and the identification process is carried out in two phases. First, cattle at least six months old are registered by taking 10 individual photos or a 3 to 5 second video (or both for greater accuracy) of the muzzle. The farmer usually does this when the cow is in the crush.
The farmer then uploads the photos into the Stoktake app. “From there, the farmer just needs one photo from any data feed – a security camera or phone – to check against the registration,” Phillip says. At this point, an ear tag is no longer needed to identify the cow. This is important because thieves often remove the tags or they sometimes fall out.
Tackling an underreported problem
The ABS estimates Australia’s cattle population is nearly 28 million. But how many are stolen each year, including what can be very sophisticated operations, is hard to pinpoint.
The University of New England’s (UNE’s) Centre for Rural Criminology references a 2022 PwC report that suggests around 31,000 cattle are stolen annually, costing farmers about $50 million. However, many cases go unreported. The UNE says this can be because a farmer may discover the theft too late and lacks proof, or they doubt the police’s ability and resources to solve the crime in very remote areas.
“Making it work”: Bringing academic research to life
Stoktake emerged from a hackathon run by Phillip’s software development company Z Ware. The hackathon focuses on problems being addressed in academia. “We find a really niche challenge and just try and hack that and make it work.”
Having achieved his PhD in Innovation from the UNE, Phillip keeps an “ear to the ground” when it comes to the latest academic research. He says there’s “great work” being done at universities he’s passionate about using it to invent solutions to solve problems.
Using Aussie talent to go global
Stoktake’s technology is gaining traction internationally; 36,000 cows are registered on the app across smaller farms, where farmers can still use their phones to register their stock, in Australia, Botswana, Brazil, South Africa and Canada.
These farmers are trailing the app for free to help Stoktake refine the tech ahead of commercialisation and pre-revenue. With an estimated 1 billion head of cattle worldwide, Phillip says the next “big thing” is to prime the solution for large-scale farming. This means developing hardware that can quickly photograph and register tens of thousands, or even millions, of cows. “The demand is there,” he says. “We’re just looking for the right partners to take us to the next level.”
Despite offers from overseas investors, Phillip is committed to keeping further development in Australia. “We’ve got some really good skills here and we need to use them.”
iAwards a unique networking opportunity
After seeing so much “really good Aussie innovation” at the National Ceremony, Phillip was in “disbelief” when Stoktake won the Start-up category and the Trailblazer Award. He says being part of the iAwards helped Stoktake to nail its “facial recognition for cows” tagline and perfect its pitch.
The recognition for his solution didn’t stop at the National Ceremony. Phillip took Stoktake as part of a contingent representing Australia at the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards in Brunei. There, he took out wins in the Industrial – Agriculture, Supply and Sustainability category and Startup of the Year category.
His advice for others considering entering the iAwards? “Have a go. Winning is fantastic but just having that networking ability, and being able to talk to people you normally don’t get access to, is great.”
Find out more about the iAwards and how to enter
Note: Western Australian innovators enter the iAwards National competition through the state-based INCITE Awards. Tasmanian innovators enter through the TasICT Awards