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Agriculture · head to head

Farmers Business Network (FBN) vs Halter

Farmers Business Network (FBN) logo

Farmers Business Network (FBN)

Agriculture

Farmer-to-farmer network and marketplace

From
$700/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Halter logo

Halter

Agriculture

Solar collar virtual fencing and cow monitoring for dairy and beef grazing

From
9.9/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Farmers Business Network (FBN) the Internet Archive's capture of Farmers Business Network's homepage on 2 January 2021 stated core FBN membership is free, with fees applying only to add-on services such as FBN Direct input purchases, crop marketing advisory, brokerage, financing and insurance, each offered by separately licensed FBN subsidiary entities.; Halter the subscription is permanent and per head, so a 500 cow dairy carries a five-figure annual bill indefinitely and the collars become inert if it lapses; there is no owned-outright end state.
  • They diverge on capability: Farmers Business Network (FBN) covers Seed performance analytics, Halter covers Virtual fencing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Farmers Business Network (FBN) and Halter actually diverge.

Attributes where Farmers Business Network (FBN) and Halter differ
AttributeFarmers Business Network (FBN)Halter
Starting price$700/year9.9/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer cow per month plus one-time install
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidiOS, Android, Web
Founded2014Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Agriculture).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Farmers Business Network (FBN)

  • Seed performance analytics
  • Input price transparency
  • Direct input purchasing
  • Yield analytics
  • Crop marketing tools
  • Farm financing
  • Agronomic insights
  • Farmer network access

Only in Halter

  • Virtual fencing
  • Remote shifting
  • Heat detection
  • Health alerts
  • Pasture management
  • Solar collars
  • Exclusion zones

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Farmers Business Network (FBN)

  • Input purchasingnot Halter
  • Seed selectionnot Halter
  • Price comparisonnot Halter
  • Farm financingnot Halter
  • Market insightsnot Halter

Halter

  • A 600 cow grazing dairy that shifts breaks twice daily and cannot recruit enough staff to do itnot Farmers Business Network (FBN)
  • A beef ranch fencing off riparian margins and wetlands without building physical fencenot Farmers Business Network (FBN)
  • A dairy replacing a separate heat detection collar system with one collar that also does fencingnot Farmers Business Network (FBN)
  • An operation running cell grazing on country where the cost of internal fencing exceeds the collar subscriptionnot Farmers Business Network (FBN)

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Farmers Business Network (FBN)

  • The Internet Archive's capture of Farmers Business Network's homepage on 2 January 2021 stated core FBN membership is free, with fees applying only to add-on services such as FBN Direct input purchases, crop marketing advisory, brokerage, financing and insurance, each offered by separately licensed FBN subsidiary entities.

Halter

  • The subscription is permanent and per head, so a 500 cow dairy carries a five-figure annual bill indefinitely and the collars become inert if it lapses; there is no owned-outright end state.
  • On-farm tower infrastructure is a separate up-front install cost that is not in the headline per-cow price, and terrain with hills or bush can require more towers than the initial quote assumed.
  • Coverage is concentrated in New Zealand, Australia and parts of the United States; buyers elsewhere face no local support, no local install crew and uncertain regulatory acceptance of virtual fencing.
  • Virtual fencing is not universally legal or accepted: some jurisdictions and some organic or welfare certification schemes restrict aversive stimulus devices, which can decide eligibility before price is even discussed.
  • Total vendor lock-in on collar, towers, app and animal data means there is no second source for a replacement collar and no way to keep the fencing working if the commercial relationship ends.

Pricing, plan by plan

Farmers Business Network (FBN)

$700/year
  • FBN Membership$700/year
    • Access to FBN Analytics
    • Seed performance data
    • Chemical price transparency
  • FBN DirectFree
    • Transparent input pricing
    • Direct-to-farm delivery
    • Seed & crop protection

Halter

9.9/month
  • Core$9.9/month
    • Virtual fencing and remote shifting
    • Per cow per month
    • On-farm tower infrastructure charged separately
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • Everything in Core
    • Heat detection and reproduction tools
    • Health and behaviour alerts
  • Unlimited$undefined/month
    • Everything in Pro
    • Full feature set for larger operations
    • Pasture and residual management

Which should you pick?

Choose Farmers Business Network (FBN) if

  • You need seed performance analytics.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want input price transparency.
Farmers Business Network (FBN) review

Choose Halter if

  • You need virtual fencing.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want remote shifting.
Halter review

Questions people ask

Is Farmers Business Network (FBN) or Halter better?
Neither clearly leads. Farmers Business Network (FBN) starts at $700/year and Halter at 9.9/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Farmers Business Network (FBN) or Halter?
Farmers Business Network (FBN) starts at $700/year and Halter at 9.9/month.
Does Farmers Business Network (FBN) or Halter run on more platforms?
Farmers Business Network (FBN) runs on Web, Ios, Android. Halter runs on iOS, Android, Web.
What is Farmers Business Network (FBN) best used for?
Farmers Business Network (FBN) is most often used for input purchasing, seed selection, price comparison, farm financing. Of those, input purchasing and seed selection are not what Halter is typically brought in for.
What can Farmers Business Network (FBN) do that Halter cannot?
Farmers Business Network (FBN) covers Seed performance analytics, Input price transparency, Direct input purchasing, Yield analytics. Halter covers Virtual fencing, Remote shifting, Heat detection, Health alerts.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Halter: Do I buy the collars or rent them?

In practice you are buying into a per-cow monthly subscription plus a one-time install for the towers. The collars are not useful without an active subscription.

Halter: What does it actually cost for 500 cows?

Starting from around NZ$9.90 per cow per month, that is roughly NZ$59,000 a year before the one-time tower infrastructure cost, and it recurs every year.

Halter: Can I finance it?

New Zealand dairy farmers can finance the install through ANZ, ASB, BNZ or Westpac over two years, and paying the subscription up front attracts a discount.

Halter: Does it replace heat detection collars?

Yes on the higher tiers. That is the main reason dairies justify the cost, because it removes a second per-cow system.

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