Cowboys Swap Horses For Smartphones, Now Yell at Cows Via Wifi
KEY POINTS
- •Since 2025, New Zealand’s Halter has equipped over 200 U.S. ranches with smart herd management using AI and virtual fencing.
- •Ranchers can monitor cattle and water resources remotely via apps, reducing long drives and fence repairing costs.
- •Despite animal welfare concerns, ranchers report cattle respond well to sound and vibration training, improving grazing strategies.
Forget lassoing cattle horseside — now ranchers are herding via solar-powered smart GPS collars from an obscure company called Halter, based in New Zealand because of course it’s not Texas. Since 2025, half the US states and over 200 ranches have signed up to virtually fence cattle using algorithms and app alerts that let cowboys ditch endless fence-walking. Halter raised a cool $100 million betting that labor shortages now mean cows are supervised more efficiently from a bar or couch, despite Theodore Beaumont admitting ‘we won’t be ranching from the couch.' Meanwhile, Ranchbot satellites beam back water tank status during weak cell service, so ranchers can skip even more driving. Animal welfare experts warn about reliance on sound cues and electric pulses, but rancher Lauren Sizemore says the collars break away from branches and that cows barely notice. All this in a world worried about foreign beef competition from Australia, Argentina, and Brazil – now the final showdown: Old-fashioned cowboys versus Wi-Fi cowboys.
Share the Story
When your cattle get GPS collars and virtual fences, you realize herding cows was basically the first version of manual labor nobody liked anyway.
Ranchers now using AI to manage cows perfectly because talking gently to irritable giant animals was apparently passé.
Cows with virtual fences? Great, now cows have better tech than half the population’s Wi-Fi at home.
Source: Axios | Published: 1/22/2026 | Author: Russell Contreras
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