Wednesday, 13 February 2019 10:25

Cow collar firm on the move

Written by 
Chief executive and founder Craig Piggott. Chief executive and founder Craig Piggott.

Kiwi agritech start-up Halter, in Auckland, expects to commercially launch its GPS-enabled cow collars in April.

Chief executive and founder Craig Piggott this month told the Agmardt NZ Young Farmers Conference in Christchurch that the firm had just finished setting up its production line in China.

“We have received our first collars off the line, and we’re targeting April as our commercial launch. It’s all happening very quickly.” 

Halter’s GPS-enabled collar enables cows to be guided around a farm by a smartphone app, Piggott said. It has had 18 months testing on a Waikato farm.

“The system uses audio and vibration to train a cow; the smartest cows only take two hours to train.”

The solar-powered collars reduce farm labour and infrastructure costs.

“The collars can be programmed to bring the cows to the milking shed at certain times and identify cows on heat,” Piggott said.

“The collar has huge animal welfare benefits, especially on larger farms. If a cow stops eating because she’s sick or lame, she can be identified sooner.”

Virtual fences save time can eliminate temporary electric fences.

“We have built the system to work around existing permanent fences. In the long term, a farmer could pull out all fences and run a completely fenceless farm. There are big gains to be made with improved pasture utilisation.”

Farmers will pay nothing upfront to use the collars but will pay a monthly fee to use the software.

Halter’s team has doubled in the last six months and it now has a dozen jobs listed on its website.

More like this

Jersey 'right balance' field day

The future of sustainable, profitable and environmentally friendly dairying will be on full display at the upcoming 'The Right Balance' field day at NZ Young Farmers' Donald Farm in South Auckland.

Featured

Big return on a small investment

Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.

Editorial: Sensible move

OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Cuddling cows

OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its…

Bikinis in cowshed

OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter