SAU – Sistema de Alertas UNICOL

An alert service for Azorean cattle farmers, warning of two risks to herd health: sporidesmin on pastures and thermal stress.

Spores of the fungus Pithomyces chartarum release sporidesmin, which causes liver damage in cattle — discomfort, lost productivity, infertility or death, with heavy economic losses. High temperature–humidity index (THI) values affect health, milk production and reproduction. SAU combines field weather stations with the TERINOV IoT sensor network — connected over the same LoRaWAN infrastructure that serves the Azores — to detect both and warn farmers in time.

How it work
• SMS alerts — farmers are notified directly on their phones when risk rises
• Weather monitoring — live readings from stations in the field, transmitted over LoRaWAN
• Risk mapping — UNICOL staff track susceptibility on an interactive map
• Custom alerts — UNICOL can send messages to all contacts instantly

SAU is a collaboration between AIR Centre, UNICOL and TERINOV. It turns into an operational service the work developed under the SAPC project.