Ethel Farm Limited

The Challenge

Ethel Farm Limited are a small family-owned sheep breeding farming business located in Kells, County Meath. They specialise in breeding specialty and pedigree lamb flock.

A common problem in sheep lambing is malpresentation of the lamb, which can cause complications for the ewe during the birth process and even endanger the animal. The project concept is to develop a sustainable, remote monitoring system for farmers to detect signs and indicators of ewe giving birth to lambs.

The Support Provided

CREDIT Technology Gateway have been engaged across 4 x Innovation Vouchers and 1 x IPP Feasibility Study which have been conducted to investigate state of the art in monitoring status of the health of farm animals and perform analysis on the ewe before the lambing process to extract behaviour indicators using integrated sensors and vision system.  

The Results

The company has obtained value information regarding the micro-movement and behaviour translated directly from the experimental sensors, with recommended operational process to ensure the safety of the ewe during lambing, addressing the sustainability of agriculture. 

Future Outlook

CREDIT Technology Gateway are in the final stages of delivering on a unique 50/50 EI Innovation Voucher for the client which is exploring key components of onsite data collection, data pre-processing, data labeling, model selection using machine learning and model testing. The client has invested in the project with financial and in-kind contributions. 2026 lambing season will conclude the programme of work with a real-world testing of the system onsite at client premises.