FlockLock: Smart tags for grazing cattle

How can a farmer keep track of a herd at pasture without having to stay by the fence? The student team behind FlockLock is developing smart tags that monitor the location, activity and health of cattle and send a phone alert about theft or straying. In six months at the PrusaLab hardware accelerator, the verified concept became a working prototype ready for testing in herds.

Start-up
FlockLock s.r.o.

Field
agriculture, IoT

Year of Acceleration
2022 (2nd run)

Aim of the programme
prototype for testing in herds

Cow with a FlockLock smart tag on its collar

A tag that watches the herd

It tracks the animal's location, activity and health. Data goes to a mobile app that alerts the farmer to theft, reduced activity or straying.

FlockLock smart tag prototype with a 3D printed casing

From ear to collar

During the accelerator, the original ear tag became a collar tag. Its casing was 3D printed.

Custom electronics and app

The team developed its own printed circuit board, the first version of the mobile app and an algorithm that evaluates grazing data.

FlockLock mobile app: herd overview, alerts and pasture map

Tested at pasture

The prototype was thoroughly tested, including at a Prusa farm.

FlockLock smart tag on a cow's collar at pasture

Read on

Task

The student team verified the concept in a bachelor's thesis. It joined the second run of the PrusaLab hardware accelerator in 2022 with the goal of building a prototype that could be tested at scale on several herds. The solution was also to include a mobile app for farmers.

What they achieved in six months

a working prototype with a 3D printed casing; the original ear tag became a collar tag,
a custom printed circuit board,
the first usable version of the mobile app,
a custom algorithm to evaluate cattle and grazing data,
thorough prototype testing, including at a Prusa farm.

The team presented the results to investors and media at the accelerator Demo Day on 6 December 2022.

More than hardware

“For us, the accelerator was really a fresh start for our project. Suddenly we didn’t have to worry about how to make something, how to pay for something or how to get hold of something, and we could focus fully on developing and improving our product. And even though it is a hardware accelerator, the other pillars of a successful start-up weren’t neglected: setting up internal processes, calculating cash flow or fine-tuning the business plan. Prusa does all of that very well.”

— Daniel Rychlý, co-founder of FlockLock

What happened next

In November 2023, the jury of Nastartujte se 2023, a competition for new entrepreneurs (Komerční banka and AMSP ČR), named FlockLock the best project. FlockLock s.r.o., based in Brno, continues to develop smart tags for grazing livestock. According to flocklock.cz the tags track the animal's location, detect heat, assess its health, send data to a mobile app from anywhere in the Czech Republic and last a whole season on a single charge. Farmers can pre-order them.

About the accelerator

FlockLock went through the second run of the PrusaLab hardware accelerator together with the start-ups Last Miles and Goboline (Demo Day article). You can find out how the accelerator works on the page Acceleration.