"Three years ago I discovered a statistic that shocked me: 93 per cent of farmers did not use any form of computerised herd management system," says Fabien Peyaud, IT manager with farmer-owned co-operative, FRS Network.
“I decided to find out why and started talking directly to farmers and visiting their farms to see for myself the challenges they faced on a daily basis. By the end of the process I had verified a set of independent requirements and spent the next two years building a solution to meet them.”
Peyaud’s solution is Herdwatch, a cloud-based mobile and desktop system launched in February this year that allows cattle farmers manage their beef or dairy herds via a smartphone, tablet or computer.
“It represents our vision of the future for global agriculture and is a disruptive, innovative mobile technology that brings traditional farming into the mobile revolution,” Peyaud says. “Herdwatch can literally save farmers hours of paperwork every week by allowing them to record farm and animal events on the go as they happen. Our users tell us the system saves them at least four to five hours a week.”
Peyaud soft launched Herdwatch at the 2013 National Ploughing Championships. "It was a roaring success and at that stage we knew we had hit all the main requirements," he says. "It then took another four months of concentrated effort to finish out the system with the help of a core team of excellent beta testers."
Less than 12 months later, Herdwatch has 350 active users split between 300 paying customers and 50 test users. The revenue model is an annual subscription of €99 (including VAT) per herd.
“There are other farm apps out there but Herdwatch is the first cross-platform mobile solution fully approved by the Department of Agriculture,” Peyaud says. “It is also the only farming app that works offline but is also cloud-based. This means the data is always safe and can be easily managed from multiple devices. In addition to the app we have also built a computer version that runs on Windows and Mac. Finally, we made it so easy and straightforward to use that most people don’t even need to be shown how it works. Basically, if someone can text they can use Herdwatch.”
Herdwatch has been developed for the Irish market but Peyaud has set his sights on launching it internationally.
"Cattle farming in Ireland is not dissimilar to cattle farming in the UK, US or anywhere else in the world and there are two million cattle farmers in the EU and US alone," he says.
“We believe Herdwatch has huge global potential and are currently in the testing phase of our UK version. This will double our market overnight when it is launched later this year. We are also looking at expanding into sheep and other animals in the near future.”
FRS Network provided Peyaud with the financial backing and time to design the system and the co-op is the majority shareholder in the new venture.
Peyaud estimates the development costs at around €300,000 and says the project also had financial assistance from the North Tipperary Leader Programme and from the Tipperary Enterprise Board.
At present Peyaud manages Herdwatch with input from others at FRS, but the company will begin recruiting in its own right within the next few months as it increases its customer base and enters new markets.
The company is now looking to raise funds of around €300,000 to bring Herdwatch to the next level and fund its global roll-out. “Ideally we would like an investor with expertise in launching new technology,” Peyaud says. “We are currently working on our growth and investment strategy and have already had strong interest from potential Irish and international investors in the agri-tech sector.”
