TUSKEGEE, Ala. — In June 2026, Livestock Technologies completed installation at the Tuskegee University research feedlot. The working system covers 60 cattle across four pens and joins solar-powered field nodes, wireless backhaul, RGB and thermal imagery, on-site processing and storage, and controlled-chute reference capture in one live feedlot deployment.
Installed and Operating in the Field
This is a completed field deployment at a working university feedlot. It captures the real conditions of pens, cattle, weather, light, dust, feed access, and daily handling. Livestock Technologies designed and installed the field infrastructure; Tuskegee University provides the research setting and leadership for the scientific program.
Field nodes
Solar-powered nodes pair RGB and thermal capture at the pens, bunks, and water zones.
Wireless link
Point-to-point wireless backhaul moves imagery across the site to the local system.
On-site system
Local processing and storage keep the camera archive at the research feedlot.
Chute references
Controlled chute passage captures face, muzzle, and visible ear-tag views with the loading record.
Watch: Inside the Tuskegee AI Feedlot
One minute from the air: the pens, the herd, and the solar-powered nodes supporting the completed deployment.
A Sponsored Research Agreement Built for Real Field Evidence
Under a Sponsored Research Agreement, Tuskegee University leads the scientific evaluation across cattle, goats, and sheep. Livestock Technologies contributes the deployment architecture and operating platform. The partnership puts practical agricultural research and modern field computing in the same pasture.
Tuskegee’s 1890 land-grant mission makes it a meaningful partner for this work. Colleagues from Lincoln University of Missouri, a sister 1890 land-grant institution, have visited the site to see the installation firsthand.
Solar, Wireless, and On-Site Processing
The field nodes run on solar power and battery storage, while point-to-point wireless moves imagery to an on-site server for local processing and storage. This architecture connects the pen to the local archive without a utility drop at every camera location.
Controlled-Chute Reference Capture
When the pens were loaded, the project captured face, muzzle, and visible ear-tag imagery during controlled chute processing and linked those views to the loading record. Muzzle segmentation is working in the deployment, giving the research team a practical image-processing mechanism at the point where the strongest reference views are available.
RGB and Thermal Views, Day and Night
Paired RGB and thermal nodes create a richer field record around bunk activity, water-zone use, movement, rest, and social context. The installation captures those source views across changing light conditions, including the night record that feedlot teams otherwise have little opportunity to observe.
What Comes Next
The completed installation and working capture mechanisms are established. The study will measure automated interpretation against its research records, while commercial deployments will establish their own site-specific operating measures. Those future results remain separate from the infrastructure now installed.
Run a commercial yard? The Tuskegee installation shows the field architecture behind a commercial deployment. Explore the commercial feedlot deployment plan or talk with our team about the feedlot platform.
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