AI takes on Cattle Herding

A startup, called Halter are in talks to raise $2bn in funding for their AI powered Cow collars and their deal is already oversubscribed.

The solar driven collars enable farmers to monitor the location and health of their animals from their phones. They can even herd their cows using vibrations and audio cues from their collars, creating virtual fences.

There has been a move towards precision agriculture for a while and there are many cattle collars on the market, which moniter digestion, illness or other issues.

Halter say that their collars can be used to:
→ Prevent cows from entering streams, reducing water pollution and erosion
→ Improve pasture health through better rotational grazing
→ Lower infrastructure and labor costs by reducing the need for physical fencing
→ Monitor animal health and behavior through movement and activity data

The Halter collars send 6,000+ data points per minute to Halter's proprietary AI, which it calls the ‘Cowgorithm’, to track health and optimize grazing.

Founded on a 300-cow NZ dairy farm, they have collected 7B+ hours of animal behavior data giving great insight.

SOURCE

Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-20/peter-thiel-s-founders-fund-backs-ai-cow-collar-startup-at-2-billion-valuation
More Detail https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-31/cows-in-smart-collars--virtual-fences-help-make-farming-greener (possible paywall)