Saito Ranch is a private farm located in Asahikawa, known for having one of the longest summer grazing seasons in the region compared to public pastures. Established in 1947, this ranch was created by clearing a rocky mountain area allocated to one of the original settlers. The cows here thrive in nature, making this one of the private ranches with the highest levels of animal welfare. As the cows have now finished their extended summer grazing period, it’s time for collars to be removed and the gateway to be taken down.

Despite the sunny forecast, snow suddenly began to fall.

The cows that used to roam up and down the mountain are now gone, and the snow-covered grasslands feel desolate.

Though the snow will accumulate heavily, it’s safe to leave only the framework in place. We look forward to seeing the cows grazing happily again next season.

As autumn deepens here at Asahikawa Municipal Pasture, as you can see, there are no cows left. The summer grazing season has come to an end, and all the cows have returned to their farms. While many public pastures keep their gateways installed throughout the winter, here at Asahikawa Municipal Pasture, we remove the gateways, antennas, and solar panels after all the cows have left. Located in the Etanbetsu area, this pasture experiences more snow than the city of Asahikawa, but we leave the base in place and reinstall the gateway the following year. The installation and removal process takes less than an hour. It's a bit lonely to see the vast grasslands completely empty, without the cows that were happily grazing just a short while ago. We're already looking forward to the next grazing season."

At the Asahikawa City Ranch within the city, the grazing withdrawal operations were completed earlier this month, and the cows have returned to their farms. At the Saito Ranch, a private farm, fallen leaves are now covering the pasture. Here, the cows continue their routine of grazing on the fields and returning to the barn in the early morning and evening, right up until winter snow begins to accumulate.

The cattle that entered the pasture in late May are now approaching the time to return. On this ranch located in the northern part of Asahikawa City, the cows who spent the short summer on the vast grasslands will soon be returning to the dairy farmers. Although the period from late May to early October was just over four months, the cows now appear bigger and stronger.

At our company, we had the opportunity to conduct estrus detection experiments on this ranch for four months. It feels a bit bittersweet knowing we won’t see these cows again for a while.

In Northern Asahikawa, the grazing season has commenced. This area experiences more snowfall than Asahikawa City, leading to a snowmelt delay of about a week compared to last year. The farm, located on a picturesque hill, perfectly embodies the essence of Hokkaido. In the last week of May, around 80 cows were released into the pastures. This farm is collaborating with us to test our estrus detection system. Unlike barn-kept cattle, detecting estrus in grazing cows presents technical challenges. In a LoRa communication environment, sending large amounts of data necessary for estrus detection to the server is not easy. Our system relies on the devices attached to the collars to perform this task, rather than merely compressing the data. The movement of cows varies by breed and terrain, so we have developed flexible algorithms to detect estrus in different environments.