Blackbird Ventures has led a $NZ32 million ($29.67 million) Series B funding round for New Zealand ag-tech start-up Halter.

Other investors in the round include existing investors, US venture firms DCVC, Promus Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures and Rocket Lab chief executive and founder Peter Beck.

Halter has developed a lightweight solar-powered collar for cattle which uses IoT and GPS to enable farmers to control and monitor their herds from a mobile phone app.

The system uses Pavlovian conditioning to teach cattle to respond to a range of signals – vibrations and sounds – emitted by the collar.

So far, the system is being rolled out across dairy farms in the Waikato region in New Zealand’s North Island but it is suitable for dairy farming anywhere and for stock control in general. The system enables fenceless farming with farmers able to set up signals to keep cattle in one area or move them to another.

Halter also enables farmers to monitor the location and condition of individual animals. Alerts can be set up to warn when animals are lying down longer than usual, useful to indicate whether they may be unwell or ready to give birth.

Halter founder and chief executive Craig Piggott grew up on a dairy farm. In 2016, while he was completing a mechanical engineering degree at Auckland University, he took a role at satellite launch company Rocket Lab. This showed him how technology could completely revolutionise an industry. He realised this could be applied to the industry he knew best, dairying, which had seen little change since the introduction of the milking machine. Piggott started developing his control and monitoring system for cattle. After he had developed his minimum viable product, Peter Beck was one of the first investors to back the start-up of Halter.

Auckland-based Icehouse Ventures Tuhua 1 fund was also an early investor followed by the US venture firms.

Image: Craig Piggott with a cow fitted with the Halter device.