French cows have been spotted brandishing a QR code on their sides.
The French QR code industry has found a new way to use these mobile-friendly barcodes by painting them on the side of cattle.
Surprisingly, this is not the first time that cows have been seen wearing these two dimensional scannable codes, as they were also seen in the United Kingdom in December 2011, when farmers used them in the branding of their cattle being sold at auction.
Though many individuals initially thought that it was done as a part of a joke, it is, in fact, a genuine element of an information and inventory process that is being used for livestock and that is popping up here and there in various parts of the world. The farmers have discovered that it makes it much simpler for existing and prospective customers and buyers to obtain a wealth of information about their animals – a process that was much more complicated before these barcodes were implemented.
One example of the QR code using farmers is Gildas le Behoc, a dairy farmer in the Lorient region of France, located in the western extreme of the country, somewhat between Brest and Nantes. The farmer as begun the practice of spraying a large barcode onto the side of the cattle.
The QR code is used because the farm is located in a protected area where large signage isn’t permitted.
Therefore, instead of having marketing opportunities limited by the ban on littering the land with various billboards and other large signs, the dairy farmer has chosen to use the barcodes directly on the cattle. It was used as a kind of gimmick and it has created quite a stir in the local area, which is now spreading beyond.
When the QR code is scanned by a mobile device, such as a smartphone, then the user is redirected to a game that can be played. It is quite a simple process that simply challenges the user to try to uncover three cows, at which point, a prize can be won. The game was created by Bookbeo, a mobile marketing agency in France.
