Connected Herd: Kinetic Cattle Tag

The Problem

Across northern Australia, breeding cattle run on vast rangelands and may be handled only once or twice a year. Lost pregnancies, cows that stop cycling and early illness often go unseen until the next muster.

Only about 28% of the northern breeding herd is pregnancy tested each year, and an empty cow can eat up to nine months of feed before she is found.

Research

Interviews with six producers and vets, observation of three Queensland breeding operations and a review of 25 existing livestock monitoring systems shaped the design. Producers were clear they would struggle to back anything that needs charging, a ground tower or an expensive subscription. That set three Design Needs: no ground infrastructure, five to eight years unattended, and welfare safe fitting during a normal muster.

“Recharging a device across all our breeders on multiple properties is a chore, not a product.”
Interview participant P5, 2026

Ideation

Five concepts were sketched and tested against the Design Needs: a solar tag, a double-sided kinetic disc, a two-part skin-contact clip, a vein-access tag and a passive implant. The kinetic disc was carried forward, borrowing the clip’s two-part build and skin-contact sensing. Testing showed head movement alone could not power the sensors, so the final tag adds a long-life coin cell.

Connected Herd

Connected Herd is two products designed to work together: the Kinetic Tag and the Universal Reader. The tag goes in at normal tagging with a single centre pin and sits in the ear like a standard management tag. It carries GPS, a motion sensor, and ear and air temperature sensing.

The reader is one rugged, offline device for every job. It collects tag data three ways, from a drone survey, in the hand, or held magnetically on the crush or yard rail, then exports it by USB-C to the producer’s herd management software. Only the cows that need attention get it.

How It Works

Every cow is compared against her own normal, not a herd average. For breeding, an activity spike with a bull nearby logs a heat, and no repeat heat about three weeks later raises her Breeding Status Confidence. For health, lower activity, a rise in ear temperature corrected for air temperature, and time away from the mob raise a Health Watch.

Published studies show motion plus temperature sensing can detect calving with about 95% sensitivity within 24 hours, but behaviour alone is weak for detecting heats. That is why these are screening flags. The vet or a PAG test, which is 88 to 99% accurate, confirms at the crush.

The Kinetic Tag

The Kinetic Tag is round, low profile and fitted with one centre pin during a normal tagging routine, so there is no new handling step for the crew. Inside, the housing holds the circuit board, sensors and a long life coin cell, while the cover carries a small pendulum mass.

As the cow moves her head, the pendulum swings past a coil and tops up the tag’s energy store. There are no cables, no solar panel and nothing for the crew to charge. Because the more she moves the more it generates, the pendulum doubles as an activity sensor. The proposed materials pair a PA12 nylon shell and TPU bumper with a 316L stainless steel pin.

The Universal Reader

The Universal Reader is one rugged handheld for every job on the property. A 3.5 inch display sits beside four function keys, with separate Back, Scan and Power controls, and it works fully offline.

In the paddock, the reader docks to a drone so one survey pass can hear every tag in the paddock, then switches to handheld usage. In the yard, its magnetic back holds it on the steel crush rail with no bracket or strap, so it reads the cow in the crush while the vet’s result goes straight into her record. Soft silicone keys sit within a firmer TPU sleeve, with a polycarbonate window over the display.

User Interface

The interface was designed around real field tasks rather than menus. A Select Mode screen leads to Drone survey, Handheld find, Yard and crush, Sessions and Settings, each driven by the four function keys so the reader can be used without a touchscreen.

At the crush, the screen shows the cow’s number, the strength of the tag read and her current flags, with clear wording that flags guide the check and are not a diagnosis. Results, notes and wrong cow corrections are one key press away. At the end of the day, sessions export over USB-C as ready for the herd management software.

Connected Herd in Context

Follow a particular cow through one season. She is tagged at the muster and the tag starts learning her normal. At joining, a heat is logged, and with no repeat three weeks later her Breeding Status Confidence rises. Mid-season she is quieter, warmer and away from the mob, so a Health Watch goes up. The next drone survey picks that up, handheld find walks you to her, and at the next muster the vet confirms at the crush. Only she gets the extra attention.