Fields of dreams
Two Ballinagh brothers - a sheep farmer and a software engineer - have developed an intuitive system designed to detect when a flock is lost or under attack.
For David Beattie, best known for his ‘Sheep School’ YouTube channel, and brother Robert, the idea for their agritech company, BT-BroTech, began with a familiar problem: a dog attack.
After David posted a video about the issue, it attracted more than 140,000 views.
“The comments were basically saying that this is a major problem all over the world,” says Robert.
Early prototypes of Sheep Guardian, a wearable GPS device that monitors flock movement, were developed with support from the Local Enterprise Office and WiSAR Lab, using sensors to establish normal movement patterns.
“We could track the natural behaviour of the sheep,” says Robert. “Then we did some trials where a dog was let in and running at the sheep, and it could pick that up straight away.”
The technology has since been refined using more advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence.
“Within five to 40 seconds, you’ll have got that phone call that there’s something happening.”
The device can also create virtual field boundaries, alerting farmers if sheep leave an allocated area.
One potential advantage is every animal does not require a tracker. Because sheep move as a flock, a single tag provides early indication of unusual sheep behaviour across the wider group.
The brothers have spent several years developing and testing the technology alongside their day jobs, and interest has grown rapidly, with hundreds of farmers in Ireland and overseas already registering their interest.
The focus now is on refining the system as more data is collected.
“As we move forward, our data set will get better and the system will keep improving.”
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