He is a systems analyst. He, a computer scientist. With these businesses, it would be easy to imagine the working environment of Fabricio and Vanessa Weber: an office or home office and a full day of work in front of a computer screen. But the reality is different in his case.
For a few years, the couple have been migrating to a workplace they had never thought of in college. Since 2013, it is common to see both in the fields Animal In Mato Grosso do Sul.
Together, they dedicate themselves more and more to the development of a technology that promises to revolutionize the way cattle are identified inside an imprisonment or corral – and at a lower cost. Today, each animal is identified by an earring that has an imported plastic chip. Often, earrings get in the way when cattle scratch a tree or collide with another natural obstacle while grazing.
In the photo, Zebu cattle graze in front of a fence. Each animal is identified by an earring with an imported plastic chip (photo: disclosure).
Fabrício and Vanessa want to change with a bull facial recognition technology, with the use of traditional cameras, such as those used in home security monitoring, and software that traverses various animal-specific information – the back, the face, Profile and body aspect.
All of this is processed and in the end, the program says who the cattle are. During the entrepreneurial journey, the couple received the support of producers and Embrapa Pantanal, to learn the entire operation of the activity and what the key parameters were for evaluating each animal.
The pilot project was implemented for breeders of pantanal cattle, a specific breed in rural properties in Mato Grosso do Sul, and now the challenge is to extend the technology to other breeds.
News about innovation Globo was published on the website of Grameen magazine And went around the world. “We were also approached by people from the United States, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay, and many from Brazil. We couples abroad are known as ‘livestock precision’ (a term used in English to define precision livestock) “, says Fabrico.
At the age of 43, he and his wife now structure the company to be able to expand the business and assess the entry of partners or investors. He began receiving legal aid from the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and professional advice from a colleague based in Texas (USA).
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“One of the challenges is how we will do marketing. The goal is to allow this technology to reach small breeders, who are the majority in the country. So we thought of a simpler, cheaper solution. Vanessa says, you don’t need a special or 3D camera to reach as many producers as possible.
In the career of a systems analyst or computer scientist, Vanessa and Fabricio would envisage remuneration ranging from R $ 5,000 to R $ 15 thousand per month depending on the professional’s skills, according to the couple. As owners of their own agribusiness, however, the sky is the limit. A reward that one hopes for after both years of immersion and learning a lot in rural areas.
