CERES TAG

In order to link CERES TAG to agCommander you will need:

1) a CERES TAG account

2) an agCommander account which has access to the Livestock and IAR modules.

Navigate to System Settings > Organization > Business Units and then edit the Business Unit you wish to link.

Check the "Enable Link to CERES TAG" option is ticked, then click on the "CERES TAG Settings" button.

That will open the settings screen, shown below.

To link CERES TAG location(s) to this Business Unit, press the "Add" button. This will open a new browser tab or window.

Here you can log into your CERES TAG account, and select the location(s) you want to link. Once you have selected the location(s), press "Grant access".

If the link is successful, you will be shown a screen which will show you the location(s) successfully linked. Close this tab or window to return to agCommander.

To see linked locations in agCommander, press the refresh button on the CERES TAG Settings form. Then you will see the location(s) you have linked, and the dates they were linked.

3.1 Tags

Navigate to IAR > Data Exchange > CERES TAG > Tags

If you do not have any tags in this list or if you want to refresh the tag list, press the "Download Tags" button. Note that this does not create animals in your system. Do do that, press the "Assign Tags to Animals" button.

This screen allows you to either create new animals using the CERES TAG identifiers or you can link the CERES TAG identifiers to existing animals. If any CERES TAG identifier matches an existing Visual ID in the system, the two will be automatically matched. All other identifiers will be shown in the "Unmatched Tags" list. You can drag-and-drop identifiers between the to grids if you want to update an existing Visual ID with a CERES TAG identifier.

When you have finished, press the "Proceed" button to create or update animals with CERES TAG identifiers.

Back on the the "Tags" list, you will notice two more buttons at the top-right, "Show Selected on Map" and "Request History for Selected".

"Show Selected on Map" will bring up a map where you can see the last known location of the selected animals. The location is taken from the most recent alert or observation record for each animal. Move your mouse cursor over an icon to see the Visual ID and the date/time the animal was in that location.

"Request History for Selected" will bring up the following screen.

Here you can request historical data for the selected animals. You have the option of requesting "standard" data or "Pasture Feed Intake" (PFI) data.

agCommander will then request the selected information. A new screen will popup which will show you whether data for a Visual ID was successfully requested or not. The data from CERES TAG does not come through immediately. Once the data has been collected from CERES TAG it will be saved into the database. You might need to press the 'refresh' button on the Observations or Pasture Feed Intake tabs to see the data once we have received it.

3.2 Alerts

The "Alerts" tab will show you all the alerts you have received from CERES TAG, as well as 'location' alerts generated by agCommander.

The grid shows you various information, including the date/time the alert was received (the time zone depending on the location of the PC you are using), the Visual ID when the alert was received, the current Visual ID of the animal if it has changed since, the alert type, location, and information regarding whether or not notifications were sent and whom they were sent to.

If you want to see where alerts happened, select the alerts in the list, then press the "Show Selected on Map".

Here you can configure which staff members will receive SMS and/or email notifications. After you have made your selections, hit the "Apply" button to save them; if you want to undo your changes, hit the "Revert" button.

Note that email notifications can be sent to any valid email address. However, we can currently only sent SMS notifications to Australian mobile phone numbers.

Once you have selected notification recipients, you can further refine the conditions under notifications will be sent.

The Pause/Resume tab allows you to control notifications for each individual tag. If you select "Pause", you can also specify how long to pause notifications for. (Note that the "Until" date is based on UTC, so may not resume exactly at midnight in your local time zone.)

Once you have set up your pause/resume settings, select the tags you wish to apply those settings to and hit "Apply".

You can also decide the how often you want to receive notifications. 

The "Always" and "Never" options apply to every tag, like a master on/off switch for that alert type.

The "Not more than every" option, determines how often you will receive alerts for each alert type and tag.

Location alerts are generated by agCommander can help you identify any activity that occurs outside of the paddock boundaries you have configured. Location alerts might also be generated based on observation data we receive.

Hit the "Apply" button to save your settings.

If more than one activity alert is received at the same time, these will be grouped into one email and/or one SMS to reduce the number of alert notifications you receive.

Here are sample email and SMS notifications:

Alerts include a Google Maps link so that you can see where the alert happened. They also include the relevant time zone.

Observations can be received in two ways. The first is by you requesting the history for an animal on the "Tags" page (as described above). The second is done automatically at set intervals.

Observations include information about an animal's whereabouts at the time, what activities they were engaged in and how long each activity lasted.

3.4 Pasture Feed Intake

Pasture Feed Intake data is automatically sent to agCommander daily and shows activity information for an animal for the preceding 24 hours.

Navigate to IAR > Home > Animal List.

If CERES TAG is enabled, 3 new options will be shown on the IAR main screen.

4.1 "CERES TAG" tab

All the information received from CERES TAG about an animal can be seen here. The list can also be filtered by data type.

If you select one or more items, you can plot the location of each item on the map using the "Show Selected on Map" button.

You can also track the animal's movements (see below for more information).

Once you have selected an animal, the "Track Movements" button is available on either the IAR home screen or on the "CERES TAG" tab.

You will then be able to select whether you want all data for that animal or only data that was received between certain dates.

The data will then be plotted on a map, showing the location and the order of events.

If you hover the mouse over an icon, you will see more information, including when the animal was in that location and how long they spent there (based on the time difference between this event and the next one).

Navigate to IAR > Reports & Draft Lists > Charts > CERES TAG Pasture Feed Intake.

This allows you to chart various PFI data for a given date range.

If you need help with your devices, you can contact CERES TAG support via email at [email protected]