This is not opportunistic theft
Almost nine in ten cases involve organised syndicates. There are fewer incidents each year but more animals taken each time. These are planned operations with transport waiting.
Livestock security for South Africa
Livestock tracking that every farmer can actually afford.
Stock theft takes R1.4 billion from South African farmers every year, and almost nine in ten cases are organised crime. AniTrac puts GPS tracking, round the clock monitoring and a recovery team within reach of every farmer, whether you run twenty cattle or five thousand.
- Works without cellphone signal
- From R25 a month per collar
- Recovery team on the Gold package
- Battery lasts over a year
The scale of it
This is not a few animals going missing.
R1.4bn
Lost every year to stock theft
Source: RPO
87%
Of cases involve organised crime
Source: RPO
2m
Communal farmers with no affordable cover
Dept of Agriculture
under 5%
Of communal farmers have any tracking
Market research
Why the current answer does not work
The people losing the most are the ones nobody built for.
The worst hit have the least cover
Communal farmers hold 5.58 million of South Africa's 13.6 million cattle. Fewer than one in twenty has any tracking, because every system on the market was priced for commercial farms.
A stolen herd ends a livelihood
For a family running twenty cattle, losing five is not a bad year. It is the end of the business, the school fees and the food that came with it.
From collar to recovery
How AniTrac works
-
STEP 01
We fit the collars
A GPS collar goes on roughly one animal in every twenty five, with cheaper tags through the rest of the herd. Fitting and training happen on your farm at no extra cost.
-
STEP 02
The network picks them up
Collars talk to a LoRaWAN gateway, a small radio mast reaching five to fifteen kilometres. It needs no cellphone signal, so it works where your phone does not.
-
STEP 03
We watch for trouble
The system learns where your animals normally graze. If a collar leaves that area, moves at vehicle speed at three in the morning, or is tampered with, an alert is raised.
-
STEP 04
You are told, and we respond
You get a message within seconds by app, SMS or WhatsApp. On Gold our control room phones you and a recovery team is dispatched with the SAPS Stock Theft Unit.
The technology, in plain words
Why this works where cellphone trackers do not
Most stock theft happens in places with poor or no cellphone signal. AniTrac uses LoRaWAN, which is long range radio, so coverage is something we build rather than something we hope for.
5 to 15 km
Range from one gateway
One radio mast covers a whole grazing area, so you are not paying for cellphone data on every animal.
Over a year
Battery life
A 38,000 mAh battery runs more than twelve months. Solar collars on Gold effectively never need charging.
No signal
Needed on the farm
LoRaWAN is radio, not cellphone. It reaches the places where stock theft actually happens.
24 hours
Monitoring, every day
Automatic alerts run day and night. On Gold a person in a control room is watching them.
Free tool, no sign up
What is your herd worth, and what would it cost to protect it?
Put in how many animals you run and roughly what one is worth. You get the package we would recommend, the cost in the first year, and how many animals you would have to lose before the system pays for itself.
Example, 100 cattle
R1.2m
Value of the herd you are protecting
First year, Silver
R9,700 to R13,700
Pays for itself at
2 animals saved
Worked example using four collars and R12,000 an animal. Your figures will differ.
Three packages
Pick the level of protection your herd needs
Prices below are per collar. One collar covers roughly twenty five animals.
Essential tracking
Bronze
Communal farmers and small herds, 5 to 50 cattle
Hardware from
R1,000
plus R25 to R45 a month
- One to two location updates a day
- Theft alerts to your phone
- Basic geofencing
- Mobile app
- WhatsApp support
- No recovery team
Smart monitoring
Silver
Commercial farms, 50 to 500 cattle
Hardware from
R1,300
plus R75 to R150 a month
- Updates every 10 to 30 minutes
- Theft alerts with route replay
- Advanced geofencing
- Movement and activity monitoring
- Recovery assistance and SAPS coordination
- Monthly reporting
Enterprise and recovery
Gold
Large farms, cooperatives and feedlots
Hardware from
R1,800
plus R200 to R350 a month
- Live tracking every 5 to 10 minutes
- 24 hour control room
- Guaranteed recovery response
- AI health and fertility alerts
- Insurance integrated reporting
- Dedicated account manager
Cannot pay for hardware upfront? There is a pay per cow option at R50 per animal
per month with the equipment included and nothing to pay at the start. Minimum twenty animals.
See how it works
The difference
Why farmers choose AniTrac
Built for the farmers everyone else skipped
Two million communal farmers hold 41% of the national herd, and fewer than five in a hundred have tracking. They are our first customer, not an afterthought.
We go and get them back
Tracking tells you an animal is gone. A recovery team goes after it. On Gold that response is guaranteed and coordinated with the SAPS Stock Theft Unit.
Radio, not cellphone signal
LoRaWAN reaches five to fifteen kilometres without a cell tower and costs a fraction of cellular data. That is what lets us charge R25 a month instead of R300.
Priced for a real herd
Bronze hardware starts at R1,000. The nearest comparable products start between R2,800 and R5,600 per tag.
Honest comparison
How we compare
Published figures only. Where a competitor does not publish its pricing, we say so rather than guess.
| Provider | Who they serve | Hardware | Monthly | Recovery | Technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AniTrac | Communal and commercial | R1,000 to R2,800 | R25 to R350 | Guaranteed on Gold | LoRaWAN radio |
| FarmRanger | Commercial only | Not published | Not published | No | GSM cellular |
| Agri-Alert | Commercial only | R26,920 for five collars | R745 for five | No | Radio base station |
| Find Me Security | Commercial only | R2,800 to R5,600 a tag | Not published | No | Satellite and 4G |
Figures from published sources gathered during our market research. FarmRanger has 23 years in the market and around 3 million animals under protection, which is real proof that farmers will pay for this. Our argument is not that they are bad. It is that they were never built for the two million farmers we start with.
For investors
A R1.4 billion problem, and the 41% of the herd nobody is serving.
Stock theft is large, measured and almost entirely unserved at the low end of the market. We are raising a seed round to run the pilot, build the platform and put the first gateways in the ground. We share the market data, the unit economics and the assumptions we are least sure about directly, rather than on a web page.
Before you ask
Common questions
What happens if there is no cellphone signal on my farm?
That is exactly the case AniTrac was built for. The collars use LoRaWAN, which is long range radio rather than cellphone signal. One gateway, a small radio mast, covers five to fifteen kilometres. Most stock theft happens where there is no signal, which is why cellphone based systems struggle there.
Do I need a collar on every animal?
No. A GPS collar goes on roughly one animal in every twenty five, because cattle move as a herd. Cheaper Bluetooth tags go on the rest so the system can count the herd and spot animals that get separated. That is what keeps the cost per animal low.
What if thieves cut the collar off?
The collar sends a tamper alert the moment it is interfered with, so removing it triggers the alarm rather than avoiding it. Tags spread through the herd also act as decoys, because a thief cannot tell which animals carry what.
How long does the battery last?
More than a year on a standard 38,000 mAh battery. The Gold package uses solar collars, which in practice do not need charging at all.
What happens when an animal is actually stolen?
You get an alert within seconds by app, SMS or WhatsApp. On Bronze you act on that alert and we support you over WhatsApp. On Silver we assist and coordinate with the SAPS Stock Theft Unit. On Gold our control room phones you and a recovery team is dispatched.
Is my herd data private?
Yes. Your location data belongs to you. We share it with the police only when you ask us to in the event of a theft, and with an insurer only if you have chosen an insurance linked package.
I farm with a cooperative. Can we buy together?
Yes, and it is cheaper that way. Group packages spread the cost of the shared gateway across members, and cooperative buying is one of the main ways we plan to reach communal farming areas.
Next step
Find out what it would cost for your herd
Two minutes, no sign up, and no obligation. Or send us your details and we will come back to you.