What Does a Sheep Tracker Actually Cost? A UK Price Guide

Ask what a sheep tracker costs and you'll get answers from 'a tenner' to 'more than the ewe'. Both are true, because 'tracker' covers wildly different technologies. This guide breaks the market into its real categories, with honest numbers and the running costs nobody puts on the box.

The three cost components

Every livestock tracking system has three costs: the device on the animal, the network that carries its messages, and the platform that turns pings into decisions. Cheap devices often hide expensive networks; free platforms often hide device lock-in. Always price all three across a few seasons.

GPS collars: the heavyweight option

Cellular GPS collars report from anywhere with mobile signal — and cost like it: per-collar hardware in the low hundreds, plus a SIM subscription per animal, plus recharging or battery swaps. For high-value breeding stock or a house cow, sensible. Across a 500-ewe hill flock, the arithmetic collapses fast.

LoRa ear tags: built for flock economics

LoRa tags transmit to a gateway you own rather than a phone network, which changes everything: tags are a fraction of collar money, run for seasons on tiny batteries, and carry no per-animal SIM fee. The gateway is a one-off cost that covers the whole holding — and on most farms one or two gateways see remarkable range across open ground.

• Tags: low per-animal cost, multi-season battery life
• Gateway: one-off purchase covering the holding — no per-animal network fees
• Platform: one subscription for the flock, not per head
• Works on hills with no mobile signal — the network is yours

What Flockarewe costs to run

Flockarewe is built around the LoRa model: affordable ear tags, your own gateway, and one platform subscription for the flock — with the map, register, alerts and commons tools included rather than sold as add-ons. Tell us your flock size and ground and we'll give you the real per-ewe-per-year number for your holding.