SmartShepherd, the brainchild of Dave Rubie and Glenn Vassallo, allows livestock producers to collect vital pedigree information and thereby improve the maternal characteristics of their animals.

The start-up was named the Most Innovative International Startup at the 2018 Agfunder Innovation Awards at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco.

Mr Rubie said the company was blown away by the international recognition.

“We managed to get more votes than we thought but it’s fantastic,” he said. 

The Agri-Tech Innovation Summit attracts hundreds of agribusiness, solution providers, entrepreneurs and investors from all over the world, with the aim of accelerating the commercialisation of advanced agricultural technologies. Award winners are determined by community votes.

Mr Rubie said a lot of mare mortality could be explained by the genetics of the mother.

“I was working in the sheep industry, especially in studs. We kept coming across this basic issues of the studs not recording the mothers of the stock,” Mr Rubie said.

“For a lot of places, they just have too many animals to physically watch every birth.

“So you can put these devices on and out in the field, it will tell you which animals are associating with other animals.

“If you want to breed better rams, you need to measure all his daughters so you can use that information to breed better. ”