Russell Pastoral Operations is conducting one of Australia’s largest commercial virtual fencing trials, deploying Halter collars on 1,000 cows across 45,000 acres of Queensland cattle country.
After four months of operation, the technology has proven itself in extensive grazing conditions, with the ranch projecting it can increase carrying capacity by 1,000 cows through improved grazing control. The system uses two 30-foot towers to transfer data at a cost of about $3,500 each, with collars running $67 per head annually. The biggest barrier to large-scale adoption for most ranches remains up-front cost.
Read more here.
A part of the Merck Animal Health portfolio, SenseHub® Dairy is a full-solution monitoring ecosystem that continuously analyzes calf and cow behavior and performance data.
HeadCount Inventory is using DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise drones to count cattle, claiming 99.997% accuracy through proprietary software that processes aerial photos. The company can deploy drone swarms to count up to 90,000 head in about two hours or provide automated flyovers for regular herd statistics.
HeadCount envisions a future where ranchers fly their own DJI Mini drone, upload photos to the company’s software and receive a verified count – with accuracy as the distinguishing value proposition over simply taking aerial photos themselves.
Read more here.
Three U.S. trials found Rumin8’s methane-reducing feed additive improved feed conversion efficiency by 4.1%, 8.3% and 10.7% compared to controls – supporting the company’s hypothesis that energy normally expelled as methane can be converted to usable energy for growth.
A 460-head trial calculated the combined benefit of improved feed conversion and methane reduction at up to $137 per head per year at current beef and feed prices. Carbon credits generated through a pilot project with Brazilian meat processor Minerva Foods have now been officially certified, giving feedlots the option to monetize emissions reductions, supply low-carbon meat or capture productivity gains.
Read more here.
GEA has launched CowScout Cloud, a new data layer that stores individual animal activity, rumination and eating behavior in the cloud without time limitations – creating an unlimited digital history across each cow’s entire life cycle. For the first time, farms can analyze behavior patterns across multiple lactations rather than viewing changes only as short-term observations. The system works with GEA’s existing neck tag or a newly developed ear tag, and existing CowScout installations can be upgraded. Pricing combines one-time sensor investments with ongoing subscriptions for cloud-based analytics.
News reports were summarized from original sources with artificial intelligence (AI) and edited by the author.
Projected profitability for the next 12 months for two dairy herd sizes INCREASED in recent profit projections from ZISK.
ZISK is a profit projection smartphone app that tracks individual dairy farm profitability based on current CME board prices. Projections for a 1,000-cow dairy producing an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow and a 2,500-cow dairy producing an average of 85 pounds of milk per cow are provided.
12-month dairy farm profit projections (as of July 16, 2026):
1,000-cow dairy = $292,000 (UP about $53,500 in the last two weeks)
2,500-cow dairy = $1.453 million (UP about $135,000 in the last two weeks)
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