A Waikato-born agritech company is bringing smart technology to Kiwi farms, using "cowgorithms" to boost on-farm efficiency while also improving cows' health and making farms more environmentally friendly.
Halter uses solar-powered, GPS-enabled cow collars that pair with a simple app and allow farmers to manage their herd remotely. The collars use sound and vibrations to create "virtual fences" on farms while also enabling farmers to proactively manage their cows' health, feed and behaviour. The technology not only relieves some of the burden of farmers' day-to-day work, it also has the potential to reduce farms' environmental footprint.
Halter is this month's Change Maker. Dell and The Project have been recognising New Zealanders who have made a positive social impact in the community through the Change Maker campaign.
Founder and CEO Craig Piggott says he was inspired to start the company after realising the potential of smart technology to have a positive effect on farm life.
Although he was raised on a dairy farm in the Waikato, Piggott says it wasn't until he moved away, to study engineering at university in Auckland, that he began thinking of ways to improve on-farm efficiency.
"That was really important because when you go back and visit you look at things differently," he says. "You're coming in from outside the industry and questioning why things are done a certain way."
It was while working as a mechanical engineer at Rocket Lab, however, that Piggott saw the true potential of innovative technology, crediting the aerospace company's founder Peter Beck for showing him what's possible when you combine a skilled and passionate team with "really thinking big".
"It's pretty rare that you get to see what's possible with a very high performing team and the right leader and the right attitude," he says of his time working at the company.
Piggott also received the "ultimate reference" from his former boss when he left to start Halter, with Beck investing in the company and joining its board.
After initially being trialled on farms in the Waikato when the company launched in 2016, Halter has gone from strength to strength since then, expanding New Zealand-wide and growing its team to around 130.
Piggott attributes the rapidly rising popularity of Halter to a mixture of pandemic-related labour shortages, as well as increased environmental awareness by the agriculture sector and "a lot of open-minded farmers willing to try new techniques".
"There's this huge driver in the industry to change," he says. "There's a lot of farmers that know they need to be better and they want to be better, and they're looking for the right tools."
As well as helping keep stock away from waterways and other vulnerable environmental resources, the technology can also help farms maximise their pasture use, resulting in more feed for the animals, and alert farmers as to when cows are in heat.
Data obtained from the "cowgorithms" can also show farmers changes in their cows' behaviour, which can help them quickly detect injuries or other health issues.
Piggott says the company aims to keep growing, with overseas expansion on the cards at some point in the near future.
"The main goal is impact," says Piggott, who sees a lot more change on the horizon for our country's agriculture industry in the coming years.
"A lot of things are going to have to change [in the industry], and I personally think that's exciting.
"I think a lot of New Zealand farmers are set up perfectly to do it and it'll be a lot of fun," he says.
"I think the role of a farmer will become a lot more strategic - it will be a lot more about making the right decisions, the right trade-offs and really getting efficiency up, and it will be less about walking behind cows and putting up fences."
This article was created for Dell.
