Leveling up: a wearable sensor experiment

Prime Future 221: the newsletter for innovators in livestock, meat, and dairy

You know how Temple Grandin is known for going through cattle handling systems herself to understand what an animal experiences when going through cattle handling systems?

I've been doing my own version of this (albeit inadvertently) to develop a greater understanding of the experience of livestock producers who are deploying wearable sensors to improve management. (Or maybe for the livestock? jk)

No, I've not been wearing an ear tag, neck collar, or leg band, but I have been wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).

The background of this experiment is that I'm non-diabetic, so I'm not in the original target market for CGMs; I'm just one of the growing number of people using CGMs to improve metabolic health.

Let's face it - nutrition advice is generally terrible and terribly general, so the idea is that the data from a CGM allows you to monitor and understand specifically how your body reacts to specific foods, which allows you to make more individual choices to improve metabolic health.

Call it a hazard of my chosen profession, but while I'm looking at an app with monitoring data and insights about my metabolic health, I'm seeing parallels all over the experience with what livestock producers experience as they engage the growing market of wearables for animal monitoring.

Today I want to share 6 things I've learned about animal monitoring by wearing a CGM.