Wairarapa, NZ
The feedback loop your grazing system has been missing
eShepherd controls where cattle graze. The Auto Weigher measures how they respond. Together — a real-time feedback loop on every grazing decision.
Virtual fencing for cattle
Virtual fencing for cattle in New Zealand.
Solar-charged GPS neckbands. Audio-first welfare protocol. Mix cellular and LoRa coverage on one property. Built by Gallagher Animal Management — livestock infrastructure since 1938.
eShepherd is Kiwi-built. Gallagher Animal Management has been engineering farm infrastructure in Hamilton, New Zealand for over 88 years, and eShepherd was developed and field-tested across New Zealand hill country, dairy, and finishing operations before it launched commercially. Today eShepherd is running on real farms from Taranaki (Hardwick-Smith, precision cell grazing on a river flat) to the Wairarapa (Kilmister, eShepherd + Gallagher StrongBó Auto Weigher) to South Canterbury (Gardner, 800 dairy heifers across 350 ha — twenty break fences a day became zero).
Why eShepherd works in New Zealand
- Built in Hamilton by Gallagher Animal Management — the same team behind every electric fence energizer on a New Zealand farm.
- Field-tested on New Zealand hill country, dairy paddocks, and finishing systems for years before commercial launch. The product is designed around the topography and grazing patterns Kiwi farmers actually run.
- Indicative NZ pricing from NZ$350 per head at 60+ scale, plus a small monthly data subscription per neckband. Multi-year contracts locked in with Spark for IoT connectivity so the data rate is stable for the life of your hardware.
- Integration with Gallagher StrongBó Auto Weigher — daily liveweight tracking flows into the same platform, with the in-paddock vision weighing add-on coming in 2026/2027.
- Pasture monitoring with patented ground sensors that auto-calibrate satellite imagery — no plate-meter walks, no weekly photo uploads.
Indicative pricing for New Zealand
Hardware-only per-head tiers in NZD. Quote in your own currency at the quote builder; payback at the ROI calculator.
| Head count | Per-head price (NZD) |
|---|---|
| 4–19 | NZ$480 |
| 20–59 | NZ$415 |
| 60+ | NZ$350 |
| LoRa base station (when cellular won't reach) | NZ$6,000 |
| Monthly subscription per neckband (cellular) | NZ$2.50 / month |
| Monthly subscription per neckband (LoRa) | NZ$2 / month |
New Zealand producers running eShepherd
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Taranaki, NZ
Precision cell grazing on a Taranaki river flat
Turning a hard-to-manage 30 ha river flat into a streamlined, high-performing bull beef block.
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South Canterbury, NZ
Twenty break fences a day became zero
Intensive heifer grazing across 350 ha — Nigel used to move twenty break fences a day. Now he moves zero.
Carrier coverage in New Zealand
Spark IoT (Cat-M1 / NB-IoT) covers the vast majority of New Zealand grazing country including the central North Island, Canterbury Plains, and the Wairarapa. Where coverage drops — typical of hill country and back-block stations — LoRa base stations fill the gap. Most NZ operations end up on a mix.
Upcoming eShepherd events in New Zealand
- Mystery Creek Field Day · Mystery Creek, Hamilton · 2026-05-14
- Northland On-Farm Demo Day · Whangārei · 2026-06-11
Compared with other virtual fencing systems
eShepherd is one of four serious virtual fencing collars working on commercial cattle operations today. The most relevant head-to-head for New Zealand: eShepherd vs Halter. Cross-system overview: How eShepherd compares to other virtual fencing solutions. Long-run economics: Virtual fencing total cost of ownership.
Add New Zealand to the list of countries running eShepherd.
A specialist will scope your herd, terrain, coverage, and rollout — in New Zealand.