Herding made easy at touch of a button
Print Edition
SEEVAN, a 39-year-old herdsman in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, has become one of the first to benefit from a service supported by China’s Beidou navigation system.
Using a device similar in size to a smartphone, he can control the water pumps for wells across his 200 hectares of grassland, and feed his animals remotely.
Thanks to the new system, his cattle and sheep now have access to clean water at the touch of the button, and Seevan does not have to go to every well, some of which are tens of kilometers apart.
Gone are the days when Seevan would have to navigate the bumpy grasslands — a trip he would take daily in winter and twice a day in summer — to turn on the water pumps and wait for his herd to drink before turning them back off again.
Herding in comfort
Now he can do all this from the comfort of his own home.
The system was developed by the Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology and the animal husbandry bureau of Hangjin Banner in Erdos.
Chuluu, head of the bureau’s information center, said users can decide when they want the pumps to turn on and off. Herdsmen can also monitor their animals from the system.
Seevan is the first user to use the service, which will cost him around 300 yuan (US$46) a month.
“This fee will drop when more herdsmen join,” said Chuluu. The younger generation of herdsmen are more willing to take new approaches to animal husbandry so they can spend more time on other things.
“Now I have more time to make Matouqin,” he said, referring to playing the bowed stringed instrument carved into the shape of a horse’s head that is popular in Mongolia.
The Beidou project began in 1994, as an alternative to GPS which had been established some 20 years earlier.
A regional Beidou network has since taken shape, providing positioning, navigation, timing and short message services for China and several other Asian countries.
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