Page 46 of Stockman's Stowaway

‘Sure, we could. But they’re easy to swap out, which is why we use the brand as well.’ Dex held up the tag towards the sun as if to see through it. ‘What do these do, brother?’

‘They’ve got a built-in GPS tracker to keep count of each member of the herd to never miss one in a muster,’ explainedAsh. ‘We’ll know where the pregnant cows are. Who sired what. Everything.’

‘All from this.’ Dex pushed his hat back as he flipped over the tag. ‘Is that a solar panel?’

Ash nodded.

‘What makes them different from the other tags on the market now?’ Ryder asked.

‘I’ve added an built-in alert system. If a beast stops moving, or if one of them breaches the set boundary, like if a fence is down, it’ll send an alert.’

‘That’ll be handy.’ Cap nodded with his other brothers.

‘Mia?’

She looked up from the gadget at Ash.

‘Cap was telling me you have a template for collecting water and soil samples.’

‘I do.’

‘Can you and Harper work out a way to collate the raw data from these plugs that all of us can read? Especially Cap who hates all things computers.’ Ash cheekily winked at his brother.

‘Sure, I’d love to.’ Finally, a job not from pity, but for her skills. ‘Are you saying you’ll get some sort of report about your cattle, using these ear tags?’

‘Absolutely. I’ve designed an app, so you don’t need any fancy gadgets, just a smartphone that can scan the numbers if close enough, or just key the numbers into the phone. Ryder can use his satphone, until we get our intranet set up completed.’ Ash gave Ryder a hopeful look.

‘I’ll add it to the list,’ mumbled Ryder as they gathered around Ash’s phone screen.

‘The app will allow us to get an instant snapshot of the beast’s number, vaccination history, age, frame size, how many calves they’ve had and what their sex was, with room to add comments like deformed horn, crooked nose, cranky ass.’ Ash aimed hisphone at the plug and the app displayed a screen he scrolled over to show the information they had access too.

With a stick from the nearby wood pile, Ash drew a diagram in the dirt. ‘I’ve got cameras set at these peak points in my paddock here… Here… And here. To give me a clear overview. Harper hooked me up to some cloud to record the information, and if we keep using the satellite images for comparison, we’ll be able to use all that data to estimate how much feed we’ll need for the herd, the nutrients they’ll receive in the pasture grasses that Mia’s helping Cap grow, through to the water quality in the troughs. With the bonus of me training the cattle to get used to the drones to muster them from sections I’ll cut off from Cap and Mia’s plan for crop rotations. I’ll be able to automate the entire process all from the comfort of my gaming chair, saving us a tonne in fossil fuels and labour.’

‘Wow, that is brilliant.’ Mia was as excited as Ash. She’d never realised her in-depth conversations with Cap had been shared already to make something like this possible. ‘My dad and brother would kill for this type of tech.’

‘So all those hours playing video games are paying off?’ Dex playfully mussed up Ash’s hat like he was a boy.

‘Good work, Ash.’ Ryder patted his younger brother on the shoulder. ‘Have you patented these tags yet?’

‘Huh?’ Ash screwed his nose up, giving a shrug.

‘That’s a good idea.’ Cap nodded. ‘Our little brother might be sitting on a goldmine.’

Mia nodded, even if it was none of her business.

‘Remind me when we get home to talk about patents for your tech gadgets, Ash.’ Ryder tossed the tag back into the box. ‘Do you want to do a random test from the cattle going to your paddock and the bush paddock?’

Ash nodded, hope filling his eyes. ‘I’d love that. I just didn’t think you guys would want to use them with the herd.’

Ryder rested his hands on his hips. ‘Does anyone object to Ash’s cattle tags being used as a test on our beef?’

‘Oi, I’m all in,’ said Cap, giving Mia a sly wink. ‘I saw the potential of Ash’s plans a while back. It’ll be good to see it finally happen.’

‘Thanks, Cap.’ Ash dropped his head to hide under the brim of his hat.

‘No way, the lad’s gone all humble. That’s rare.’ Dex playfully punched his brother’s shoulder. ‘Well done, brother. I’m keen to see it in action.’

That left Ryder, who gave a nod. ‘Let’s do this.’

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