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Agriculture · head to head

Halter vs Soil Scout

Halter logo

Halter

Agriculture

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

From
9.9/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Soil Scout logo

Soil Scout

Agriculture

Buried wireless soil sensors with a ten to twenty year battery and no cables to the surface

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

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.; Soil Scout sensors are unserviceable once buried, so a failed or drifting unit means excavation and the confidence you place in a single reading has no easy verification.
  • They diverge on capability: Halter covers Virtual fencing, Soil Scout covers Fully buried sensors.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Halter and Soil Scout actually diverge.

Attributes where Halter and Soil Scout differ
AttributeHalterSoil Scout
Starting price9.9/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer cow per month plus one-time installquote
PlatformsiOS, Android, WebWeb

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
  • Heat detection
  • Health alerts
  • Pasture management
  • Solar collars
  • Exclusion zones

Only in Soil Scout

  • Fully buried sensors
  • Ten to twenty year battery
  • Underground radio
  • Dual depth sensing
  • Moisture, temperature and salinity
  • Soil Scout Hub
  • Web service API
  • Long base station range

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 Soil Scout
  • A beef ranch fencing off riparian margins and wetlands without building physical fencenot Soil Scout
  • A dairy replacing a separate heat detection collar system with one collar that also does fencingnot Soil Scout
  • An operation running cell grazing on country where the cost of internal fencing exceeds the collar subscriptionnot Soil Scout

Soil Scout

  • A golf course monitoring greens moisture where a surface-mounted probe would be hit by mowers and playnot Halter
  • A stadium pitch under a closed roof where hand-held probing is impractical during the seasonnot Halter
  • A research plot needing consistent multi-year soil data below cultivation depthnot Halter
  • An irrigated field where a surface logger would not survive tillage or a spray boomnot 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.

Soil Scout

  • Sensors are unserviceable once buried, so a failed or drifting unit means excavation and the confidence you place in a single reading has no easy verification.
  • No pricing is published at all, which makes it hard to justify against commodity probes that quote openly, and per-sensor cost is well above the alternatives.
  • It measures but does not control, so tying moisture readings to actual irrigation decisions requires either manual interpretation or a separate integration project with the control system.
  • Underground radio range depends on soil type and moisture; heavy wet clay attenuates the signal and can force more base stations than the headline kilometre figure suggests.
  • The company is small and Finland-based, so outside its established golf and sports turf distribution the support, spares and installation expertise depend entirely on whether a competent local distributor exists.

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

Soil Scout

On request
  • Soil Scout$undefined/year
    • Sensors and base station quoted per site
    • Hub subscription terms quoted with the hardware
    • No individual sensor data plans required

Which should you pick?

Choose Halter if

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

Choose Soil Scout if

  • You need fully buried sensors.
  • You also want ten to twenty year battery.
Soil Scout review

Questions people ask

Is Halter or Soil Scout better?
Neither clearly leads. Halter starts at 9.9/month and Soil Scout at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Halter or Soil Scout?
Halter starts at 9.9/month and Soil Scout at On request.
Does Halter or Soil Scout run on more platforms?
Halter runs on iOS, Android, Web. Soil Scout runs on Web.
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 Soil Scout is typically brought in for.
What can Halter do that Soil Scout cannot?
Halter covers Virtual fencing, Remote shifting, Heat detection, Health alerts. Soil Scout covers Fully buried sensors, Ten to twenty year battery, Underground radio, Dual depth sensing.

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.

Soil Scout: How long do the sensors last?

Up to ten years for the Happi100 and up to twenty for the Hydra100, buried, with no battery replacement.

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.

Soil Scout: Do the sensors need mobile data plans?

No. Sensors transmit to a base station through the soil, and only the base station uses a cellular modem.

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.

Soil Scout: Can it control irrigation directly?

No. It is a measurement and alerting system; controlling valves needs an integration with your irrigation controller through the API.

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.

Soil Scout: What happens if a buried sensor fails?

You dig it up. There is no remote service option, which is the trade-off for having nothing above ground to damage.

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