Core-Temperature Based Herd Management System and Method

A method of managing a herd of animals for purposes of health evaluation and treatment, comprising:

• determining a set of health categories for the animals, each category based in part on the core temperature of each animal;
• placing each animal serially in a livestock chute for restraining and positioning the animal;
• determining if the animal has an electronically readable identification tag, and if not, placing an electronically readable identification tag on the animal;
• transmitting data from the identification tag to a data processor;
• determining the core temperature of the animal, by using a non-invasive thermal detector for detecting the core temperature of the animal while restrained and positioned in said chute;
• said thermal detector comprising a hand-held housing, a power supply, circuitry, and a data transmitter;
• said housing having a window to allow passage of thermal radiation into an interior space of said housing;
• the window of said housing being positionable in front of an eye of the animal such that thermal radiation from within the eye is able to pass from the eye, through said window, and into said interior space of said housing;
• a thermal radiation transducer within said interior space to generate transducer output corresponding to the amount of thermal energy passing into said chamber through said window;
• said circuitry being adapted to produce a core temperature signal corresponding to the magnitude of thermal radiation emitted from an eye of the animal;
• transmitting the core temperature signal to the data processor;
• wherein the data processor is programmed to process the core temperature signal to translate the signal to a core temperature value and to determine a health category of the animal based at least in part of the core temperature value and to determine a dosing amount for medicinally treating the animal, based at least in part on the core temperature value;
• tagging the animal with a color-coded tag, the color corresponding to the health category of the animal;
• routing the animal from the chute to a holding pen associated with the health category of that animal;
• transmitting the dosing amount to medicine-delivering equipment associated with the holding pen;
• and
• treating the animal in accordance with the dosing amount;
• using the data processor to store and report identification and core temperature data of all animals passing through the chute within specified date and time periods.