According to Constable O'Bree, farmers frequently fail to report this kind of theft because they lack faith in law enforcement to apprehend the offenders. This resistance has been noted by Dr. Kyle Mulrooney, co-director of the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England (UNE). This is true despite the fact that these crimes are very common in the farming industry. The center has studied crimes against rural properties over the past 20 years. They discovered that roughly 80% of the NSW farmers polled admitted to being the victims of farm-related crimes. Additionally, 40% of respondents said that someone had taken livestock from their property.
Recently the university experimented with animal ear tags with GPS trackers. The tag has a number of functions: the first is collecting accelerometer data, which tracks the animal's movements. Another function is to provide location data, using low-orbit satellites. "For example, if an offender was mustering the cattle, you'll get a notification of high movement that should encourage the farmer to act and call the police," Dr Mulrooney says. "The other [function] is you can set up boundaries in your paddock. And so if the cattle breaches that boundary, whether it strays or is in fact stolen, you'll get an alert, telling you that the cattle has breached the boundary."
He claims that authorities can quickly trace the animals—and possibly the offenders—using that GPS data. The firm that makes the tags, Ceres Tag, has expanded internationally as a result of the positive results of the initial trials. Currently, the technology is being used on farms in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Based on UNE research named Stoktake, facial recognition for cows is another emerging tool that might help stop farm theft.
Presently, an app is being used for testing this kind of AI technology based on pictures. According to Dr. Mulrooney, it might be applied to other farm animals, such as in the investigation of the Logan sheep theft. "So if you were to use this technology, you'd be able to recognize that this specific ewe doesn't belong here when these 700 sheep show up on the other side of Australia. It comes from Victoria, after all. And we're certain of its location," he adds. The same facial recognition technology that you go through at the airport is being used to identify cows and prevent crime.