GPS collar
Goes on roughly one animal in twenty five. Sends position, detects tampering, and survives weather and rough handling. Battery over a year on a 38,000 mAh cell, or solar on the Gold package where charging effectively never comes up.
The technology, in plain words
Tracking that works where your phone does not.
Most stock theft happens in places with poor or no cellphone signal, which is exactly where cellphone based trackers struggle. AniTrac uses long range radio instead, so coverage is something we build rather than something we hope for.
From collar to recovery
What actually happens
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STEP 01
We fit the collars
A GPS collar goes on roughly one animal in every twenty five, because cattle move as a herd. Cheaper tags go on the rest so the system can count them and spot any that get separated. We come to your farm, fit them and show you the app. No charge for that.
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STEP 02
The network picks them up
Each collar sends its position to a LoRaWAN gateway, which is a small radio mast on a pole or a rooftop. One gateway reaches between five and fifteen kilometres. Two to five of them cover a whole communal farming area.
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STEP 03
We watch for trouble
The system learns where your animals normally graze. If a collar crosses that boundary, travels at vehicle speed in the middle of the night, or is tampered with, that raises an alert automatically. No one has to be watching a screen for it to work.
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STEP 04
You are told, and we respond
The alert reaches you within seconds by app, SMS or WhatsApp. On Bronze you act on it and we support you. 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.
The part that makes it affordable
What LoRaWAN actually is
LoRaWAN is long range radio built for small amounts of data. A collar sends a short message saying where it is, a few times a day or every few minutes depending on your package. That is all it has to do.
Because the message is tiny and the radio is efficient, three things follow. The battery lasts more than a year instead of days. The signal travels five to fifteen kilometres instead of a few hundred metres. And there is no cellphone contract on every animal, which is the single biggest reason competitors charge R300 a month where we can charge R25.
The trade off, stated honestly. LoRaWAN cannot stream video or send
large amounts of data, and it needs a gateway within range. That is why we install the gateways
as part of the setup rather than relying on infrastructure that might not be there.
The equipment
What goes on the animal, and what goes on the pole
Bluetooth tag
Cheaper, goes on the rest of the herd. Lets the system count animals and notice when one is separated from the group. Also acts as a decoy, since a thief cannot tell which animals carry the expensive device.
LoRaWAN gateway
The radio mast, on a six to twelve metre pole or a rooftop. Weatherproof to IP67, solar backed with battery, and lockable because a gateway is itself worth stealing. Included in your setup, not billed separately.
Hardware is sourced from two suppliers rather than one, HKT and MOKO, so a delay or a quality problem at either does not stop deployment.
Where we build first
Coverage rollout
Gateways go where the theft and the cattle are densest. These five provinces come first, because that is where the need is greatest and where communal herds are concentrated.
- FirstKwaZulu-Natal
- FirstEastern Cape
- SecondLimpopo
- SecondMpumalanga
- ThirdFree State
Not in one of these yet? Tell us anyway. Gateway placement follows demand, and a group of
farmers in one area moves you up the list considerably.
How coverage is built
- Map. Satellite mapping to find high ground and understand where cattle actually graze.
- Place. Gateways ten to fifteen kilometres apart with line of sight, solar and battery backup, and surge protection where lightning is a risk.
- Test. Signal strength measured across the area, antennas adjusted, then cattle movement tested across the actual paddocks.
A communal farming region typically needs two to five gateways for full coverage. National coverage of the main cattle areas needs between fifty and eighty.