What Does Cattle Tracking Cost? A UK Price Guide

Ask how much cattle tracking costs and the honest answer is that it depends, but not in a vague way. It depends on three things you can actually add up. The trick is to compare systems on cost per animal per year with everything in, not on the sticker price of a single tag, because the cheapest-looking tag often sits inside the most expensive system.

The three costs of any cattle tracker

Every system, whoever sells it, is built from the same three costs. Once you can see all three, the comparisons get easy.

1. The device: collar or ear tag

This is the part people quote, and it varies the most. A 4G GPS collar carries real hardware, typically in the low hundreds of pounds, and is reusable from animal to animal. A LoRa ear tag is far cheaper per head, which is what makes tagging a whole herd affordable. Satellite-capable devices sit higher again. The device you choose drives most of the total, so it is worth matching it to the job rather than defaulting to the most precise option for every beast.

2. The network: how the position gets back to you

This is the cost people forget, and it is where the big differences hide. A 4G device needs a SIM for every animal, every year, which is exactly why few farms put a cellular collar on every cow. A LoRa setup instead uses gateways you buy once and that cover the whole herd, so there is no per-animal network cost at all, just the upfront gateways sited to cover your ground. Satellite devices carry an airtime cost per device. So two systems with similar tag prices can cost very different amounts once the network is counted over a few years.

3. The software

The platform that turns positions into a map, geofences and alerts. Some charge per feature tier; Flockarewe is quoted per holding and head count, without tiers. It is usually the smallest of the three costs, but it is the part you use every day.

Why the per-animal cost varies so much

Put the three together and the reason for the huge range is obvious. A 4G GPS collar on every cow means hardware in the hundreds plus a SIM each, every year, which adds up fast on a big herd. LoRa ear tags across the herd, with a few GPS collars on the cows you watch most closely, keeps the cost per head a fraction of that. The mix is the single biggest lever on what you pay.

• Count the devices you need by type: ear tags for the herd, collars for key animals.
• Add the gateways to cover your ground, a one-off cost shared across every animal they hear.
• Add any SIM or satellite airtime, which is per animal and recurring.
• Add the software, then spread the one-off costs over the years the kit will last.

How to get a real number for your herd

Because the gateway count depends on your ground and the device mix depends on how you farm, a genuine price has to be worked out per holding. Tell us your herd size, roughly how your ground lies, and your postcode, and we will put a figure to it. For a larger herd it is usually worth a small pilot first, so you can see the real running cost before you commit the whole herd.

Weighing up the technologies behind these costs? Our guide to the trackers themselves goes through the benefits and limits of each.