GrowSafe Systems Ltd., established in Airdrie, Alberta in 1990, develops innovative Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) solutions for the agricultural research, fed cattle and dairy industries. GrowSafe is both a systems integrator and an OEM with extensive engineering capability.
GrowSafe is defining the standards by which livestock are measured, managed and treated. Collecting individual animal data in a production environment accurately is technologically challenging. Livestock production occurs in a rugged, dusty, wet environment that's extremely hard on electronics. Reading one animal's RFID tag usually means confinement to a stall or livestock chute. GrowSafe's Feed Intake and Behaviour Monitoring technology is used by major Agricultural Research Centers and premium seedstock centers worldwide to conduct livestock research and to measure feed efficiency.
GrowSafe's intelligent animal measurement, monitoring and management platform non-invasively acquires data continuously from multiple biometric and environmental sensors deployed in the livestock production environment. GrowSafe's patented technology offers a scientifically proven unprecedented ability in real-time to continuously and automatically monitor individual animals, measure and predict their market value and identify and treat targeted animals without human intervention.
In 2007, GrowSafe began the development of an “in pen” data acquisition system for the feedlot now known as GrowSafe Beef (GSB). The primary focus of GSB is to increase profitability through better decision making including optimal marketing strategies and early sickness identification and responsive treatment protocols that ensure animal health and well-being. A secondary focus is to enable genetic selection through accurate collection of individual animal performance in a production environment based on a defined market endpoint.
GrowSafe has acquired a global reputation for developing RFID based data acquisition systems that automatically read multiple tags in close proximity without confinement. A GrowSafe system is the only feed intake recording system that enables continuous data acquisition. GrowSafe have more than eight patents, 40 software program copyrights, and 200 scientific publications issued as a result of their technology.
Mid-year 2014, Genex Cooperative Inc. partnered with Profit Maker Bulls and embarked on the use of the GrowSafe Feed Intake Measurement System to help evaluate the most expensive portion of beef systems today - feed costs - to identify high feed efficiency sires. Read press release details.