Agriculture · head to head
Halter vs SMARTBOW
Halter
Agriculture
Solar collar virtual fencing and cow monitoring for dairy and beef grazing
- From
- 9.9/month
- Rated
- -
SMARTBOW
Agriculture
Ear tag cow monitoring with real-time indoor location, from Zoetis
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: 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.; SMARTBOW real-time location depends on receivers covering the whole barn plus an on-farm server, so the install is a building project and the price bears no relation to what a simple activity collar costs.
- They diverge on capability: Halter covers Virtual fencing, SMARTBOW covers Real-time location.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Halter and SMARTBOW actually diverge.
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 Halter
- Virtual fencing
- Remote shifting
- Pasture management
- Solar collars
- Exclusion zones
Only in SMARTBOW
- Real-time location
- Rumination monitoring
- On-farm server
- Individual baselines
- Herd software integration
Both cover
- Heat detection
- Health alerts
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Halter
- A 600 cow grazing dairy that shifts breaks twice daily and cannot recruit enough staff to do itnot SMARTBOW
- A beef ranch fencing off riparian margins and wetlands without building physical fencenot SMARTBOW
- A dairy replacing a separate heat detection collar system with one collar that also does fencingnot SMARTBOW
- An operation running cell grazing on country where the cost of internal fencing exceeds the collar subscriptionnot SMARTBOW
SMARTBOW
- A 1,500 cow freestall barn where finding a flagged animal by eye takes twenty minutesnot Halter
- A dairy replacing visual heat detection with per-animal oestrus alerts to tighten calving intervalsnot Halter
- A herd manager wanting rumination-based early warning of displaced abomasum or metritisnot Halter
- A vet practice using behavioural data to audit transition cow management across client herdsnot Halter
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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.
SMARTBOW
- Real-time location depends on receivers covering the whole barn plus an on-farm server, so the install is a building project and the price bears no relation to what a simple activity collar costs.
- It is an indoor system; a grazing or partly grazed herd loses the location capability that is the main reason to choose it over cheaper monitoring.
- Ear tags are consumable and go missing with the tag, so the running cost includes replacements at a rate that depends on how rough your handling facilities are.
- Zoetis ownership means a pharmaceutical company holds continuous behavioural data on every animal alongside your treatment records, and the integration roadmap favours other Zoetis products.
- Nothing is published on price, and sales run through veterinary and dealer channels, so comparing it against DeLaval, Nedap or CowManager requires several quotes and there is no reference list price.
Pricing, plan by plan
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$undefined/month
- Everything in Pro
- Full feature set for larger operations
- Pasture and residual management
SMARTBOW
On request- SMARTBOW$undefined/year
- Ear tags priced per animal
- Barn receiver infrastructure and on-farm server quoted per building
- Installation and commissioning quoted separately
Which should you pick?
Choose Halter if
- You need virtual fencing.
- You work on iOS, Android, Web.
- You also want remote shifting.
Choose SMARTBOW if
- You need real-time location.
- You work on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want rumination monitoring.
Questions people ask
- Is Halter or SMARTBOW better?
- Neither clearly leads. Halter starts at 9.9/month and SMARTBOW at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Halter or SMARTBOW?
- Halter starts at 9.9/month and SMARTBOW at On request.
- Does Halter or SMARTBOW run on more platforms?
- Halter runs on iOS, Android, Web. SMARTBOW runs on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
- What is Halter best used for?
- Halter is most often used for a 600 cow grazing dairy that shifts breaks twice daily and cannot recruit enough staff to do it, a beef ranch fencing off riparian margins and wetlands without building physical fence, a dairy replacing a separate heat detection collar system with one collar that also does fencing, an operation running cell grazing on country where the cost of internal fencing exceeds the collar subscription. Of those, a 600 cow grazing dairy that shifts breaks twice daily and cannot recruit enough staff to do it and a beef ranch fencing off riparian margins and wetlands without building physical fence are not what SMARTBOW is typically brought in for.
- What can Halter do that SMARTBOW cannot?
- Halter covers Virtual fencing, Remote shifting, Pasture management, Solar collars. SMARTBOW covers Real-time location, Rumination monitoring, On-farm server, Individual baselines. Both handle 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.
SMARTBOW: What does SMARTBOW do that other activity monitors do not?
Real-time indoor location. It tells you where the flagged cow physically is, not just that she is behaving abnormally.
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.
SMARTBOW: Does it work on grazing herds?
Poorly. Location depends on barn-mounted receivers, so animals out at pasture fall outside the system's coverage.
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.
SMARTBOW: Who owns it?
Zoetis, which also owns Valley Agricultural Software and DairyComp. The technology came from Smartbow GmbH in Austria.
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.
SMARTBOW: Is it cloud based?
Analysis runs on an on-farm server rather than in the cloud, which keeps it working during an internet outage but makes the server your responsibility.
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