Halter’s farm management system is booming, with 50 farms joining the platform since its state licensing in February, and another 100 already in the pipeline.
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On Ross Cameron’s dairy farm in Denison, Gippsland, the cows know exactly where to go.
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At the push of a button, the herd moves across the property by themselves, no motorbike, no dogs, no farmhand trailing behind them either.
Instead, the cows are guided by collars around their necks, responding to a series of audio and vibration cues that have transformed the way Mr Cameron manages his farm.
“It’s just a big part of our lives now,” he said.
The technology behind the system comes from a New Zealand company called Halter, founded on a dairy farm in the Waikato region in 2016.
A decade later, the company’s collars are appearing on farms across Victoria, following the approval of the state’s first virtual fencing permit in February.
For farmers like Mr Cameron, the appeal goes beyond just replacing physical fences.
“We used to spend 45 minutes sitting on the motorbike behind cows, in all kinds of conditions, that’s basically gone,” he said.
“Now the cows arrive at the feed pad exactly when we want them, without anyone pushing them.”
The Halter app contains a full digital map of the farmer’s property, allowing them to digitally manage their cattle and pastures.
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Using an app on their phone or desktop computer, farmers can draw virtual paddocks across a digital map of their property.
Those invisible boundaries are then communicated to the cows through GPS-enabled collars that use sound and vibration to guide movement.
If an animal continues moving beyond the boundary, the collar delivers a low-voltage pulse.
Halter’s head of Australian southern states, Hamish Irvine, said the pulse was designed to be predictable, allowing cows to quickly learn how to avoid it.
“It’s comparable to a low-voltage electric fence,” Mr Irvine said.
“Essentially, farmers can click a button to move cows from paddock to dairy, then back again.
“This saves labour, freeing up farmers to perform higher-value tasks.”
Halter collars use a combination of audio, vibration, and low-voltage pulses, to manage cattle movement.
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The company calls the behavioural model behind the technology its “cowgorithm”.
Each collar continuously feeds information into the system, generating insights into animal behaviour, grazing patterns and pasture utilisation.
The collars also monitor indicators linked to heat cycles, activity and general health, like a kind of Fitbit, providing farmers with a constant stream of information about their herd.
For Mr Cameron, it is the data side of the system that has become just as valuable as the virtual fencing itself.
“But it’s not just the collar, it’s the powerful app too,” he said.
“There’s so much data, and it’s incredibly valuable when conditions get tough.”
Halter collars relay live data back to the farmer’s phone, giving insights into pasture management and animal health.
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Mr Cameron first became aware of Halter several years ago through dairy industry networks and watched its roll-out across New Zealand and Tasmania before adopting the technology himself in February.
“We were really keen,” he said.
“I was just waiting to be allowed to use it.”
He said the cows adapted quickly to the collars, with most learning the system within days.
“It’s like that little static shock you might get from the trolleys at Bunnings,” he said.
“It’s very low voltage and they don’t get it much.
“By day five, there’s no backup fence any more and they’re trained.
“The cows are smart enough to work it out.”
Since receiving approval in Victoria earlier this year, Halter said about 50 farms across the state had adopted the technology, with another 100 expected to follow.
For Mr Cameron, the technology has already become part of the daily rhythm of the farm.
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