Just as precision agriculture has transformed farming, tech-savvy cattle owners are now using new methods to become more efficient.

Melissa Brandao is the founder of HerdDogg, a Colorado company that sells smart tags for cows. With the help of Bluetooth, customers learn more about their cows' and steers' activity and health.

Herd animals can hide symptoms of illness for several days, to thwart predators that target weak prey. New technology allows ranchers to detect illness earlier, and begin treatment accordingly.

"We can check the temperature, their internal temperature, the outdoor temperature, how many steps they've taken, how many times she's come into water and how far in the pasture she's going,” said Marlene Reynolds, owner of a Texas Longhorn cow, who uses Brandao’s smart tags at her ranch.

Technology helps business in other ways too.

Mark Frasier, another rancher, said, "Now I have the ability to track back and find which animals grew well for us and which animals didn't and I can use that in making purchasing decisions, and that's something that simply wasn't possible 15 or 20 years ago."