L2M – AgrUS (Agricultural UltraSound)

When farmers are selling their cattle for meat, the quality of the meat can make a large difference in profits. Farmers and producers see between 30-45% of the retail price, so ensuring that they sell quality beef makes a difference for their bottom line. So how do they know when their cattle are ready for market? Most of the time, it comes down to time and weight, and producers only find out quality when cattle are slaughtered. That’s where our ultrasound-based project can be a difference maker. Using ultrasound, we can see into the muscles of live cattle. By adapting cutting edge medical ultrasound algorithms, we can inform producers of the meat quality before slaughter. For producers, their bottom line can improve in two ways: 1) saving on costs (up to $15/day/head of cattle), 2) upgrading their beef quality (e.g. from AA to AAA). With around 100 million livestock cattle across the US and Canada, our project can significantly improve profitability for beef producers.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alfred Yu

Student:

Partner:

DMZ Ventures Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: