VIRTUAL fencing company Halter is fielding some enquiries from sheep producers seeking a VF product, but at the recent Henty Machinery Field Days, integrating cattle into cropping country was the company’s focus.

The company’s wooden hitching rail draped with solar-powered GPS virtual fencing collars for cattle drew in customers and helped the team win the Best General Outdoor Award for its showcase of VF and pasture management technology.

Halter regional sales manager NSW Angus Raiman said Halter is fielding interest around integrating cattle into cropping operations.

“Some of our existing producers are already using Halter to do this and seeing great results.

“Without the need to install internal fencing, there’s a great opportunity to put cattle on crop to improve soil health and add an extra income stream,” he said.

Mr Raiman said Halter has had some really productive chats with local producers in New South Wales’ Riverina region regarding the cropping-livestock opportunity.

“What came through is that every operation is different, and producers need to consider how cattle fit within their existing cropping system, including practical requirements such as access to water.

“Some producers in the area have been using Halter for strip grazing, and seeing amazing results, especially in regards to weed control,” he said.

Sheep VF product not on Halter roadmap

When asked about the level of farmer interest at Henty in a sheep VF product, Mr Raiman said cattle is the company’s focus “and our priority is making sure beef and dairy farmers can get the most out of the product, both from a virtual fencing and animal management perspective.”

“While I can’t speak to the future plans of the business, we always appreciate hearing from producers about their goals and the needs they are looking to meet.

“These conversations and customer feedback help inform how we continue to develop new products,” he said.

“While we often field queries about the potential use case of a virtual fencing collar for sheep, this is not currently a product on Halter’s roadmap, and we remain focused on building more awareness amongst Australia’s dairy and beef cattle operations.”

Halter territory manager – East Riverina/ Murray Regions, NSW, Mel Gooseman said cropping farmers tend to have paddocks that are perfect for cropping machinery.

“So in terms of stocking or grazing, that’s really challenging for them to get the right sized paddock or right scenario for both stock and crop.

“Halter enables them to have cropping sized paddocks but graze them like a livestock sized paddock,” she said.

“For farms with country that isn’t able to be cropped or have sheep, using Halter’s virtual fencing means that land can be utilised by animals; with the price of red meat, that’s really powerful.

“Input prices are really high at the moment, so no matter what they’re growing, input cost remains the same to some extent, but Halter allows them to actually utilise every blade with no additional input costs.”

Mr Raiman said one Riverina-based producer Micheal Gooden is using Halter to move his cattle multiple times a day onto fresh grazing areas.

“For Michael, it’s meant he can be much more precise with how he uses the pasture available to him, while spending less time physically moving cattle.

“Having his cattle grazing new areas of the paddock multiple times a day has also had a great impact on his pasture quality.”

GPS collars also track livestock and monitor behaviour

Halter’s system replaces conventional fencing with a smartphone app and a lightweight collar worn by each animal. Farmers draw paddock boundaries directly on their phone, and the collar uses sound and vibration cues to guide cattle within them, with no wires, posts or manual mustering.

Mr Raiman said it was the first time we have exhibited at Henty.

He said the hitching rail was a great conversation starter with field day patrons and potential clients.

Mr Raiman said the focus for staff was to keep delivering value and supporting dairy and beef customers and future producers.

“There is continual work going into product development with features being built and growing the team in Australia as the business expands.

“Next year will be a big year for Halter building on the success we have already had here in Australia.”

With the Halter collar, herds can be shifted onto fresh pasture from anywhere, at any time, cutting out hours previously spent walking fences and moving mobs by hand or bike. The collars also provide 24/7 location tracking and behaviour monitoring, alerting farmers to health issues, calving or heat detection the moment they happen.

Since launching in Australia in 2022, Halter has expanded across Queensland, NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory, with more than 230 beef farms signing up in 2026 alone, and now supports over 3500 farmers across Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

In June, Halter launched Beef Pro, a major upgrade layering grazing and feed-demand planning, satellite forage data, grazing intensity heat maps and automated grazing records.