ZigBeef LLC was founded to profit from the application of new wireless sensor network technologies to the current revolution in electronic identification of cattle. In recent years, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. beef industry have been exploring electronic identification of cattle as a means of ensuring greater consumer food safety and increased meat quality. Current methods of electronic cattle identification use passive radio frequency identification (RFID) devices. Canada and many European nations mandate use of these passive devices for their nationsâ cattle. Typical hand-held readers for these passive tags cost thousands of dollars. These readers have a range of only a few inches thereby imposing severe limitations on the collection of identification numbers from characteristically unapproachable commercial beef animals. ZigBeefâs products promise to overcome the limitations inherent in todayâs methods of electronic cattle identification while offering powerful new techniques for beef cattle management. ZigBeef products give beef producers the ability to electronically identify cattle whether their herds are crowded into chutes, gathered into pens, or grazing open pasture. The company's radio-based cattle ear tags offer beef producers superior reading-range over existing electronic tag technologies. Producers will no longer be limited to infrequent opportunities to scan electronic identification when the entire herd is gathered for vaccination. In contrast, ZigBeef allows producers to instantaneously identify each animal in their herds at virtually any
