The Solution
Virtual fencing built for the realities of South African beef and dairy.
eShepherd is a precision livestock platform from Gallagher Animal Management: solar-charged GPS neckbands, a base station, and a mobile app. The fence moves with the farmer, not the other way round.
The Product
Gallagher eShepherd — a fence you can move from your phone.
A solar-charged GPS neckband on each animal, paired with a base station and a mobile app. Farmers draw paddocks on a map; cattle are trained to audio cues and gentle pulses; breach attempts trigger immediate notifications. No posts, no wire, no maintenance crews.
- Real-time per-animal tracking and behavioural data
- Instant breach alerts and exclusion zones for biosecurity
- Adaptive rotational grazing without physical infrastructure
- Integrates with national traceability and export compliance
What South African producers need to solve.
Four sector-defining pressures map directly to eShepherd's capabilities.
01
Rising input costs
Recurring capital and maintenance of physical fencing is offset by virtual paddocks that scale without materials or contractors.
02
Labour cost & workforce risk
Smaller, more skilled, fully compliant teams replace large mustering and boundary-monitoring crews — reducing one of the largest controllable expenses in SA beef.
03
Modernisation imperative
Industry bodies and government recognise that long-term competitiveness depends on technology-led productivity. eShepherd is a credible step.
04
Export growth
Demonstrable traceability and biosecurity are preconditions for sustained export volume. Every animal's movement is time-stamped and recorded.
Key features
A fence that you can redraw.
- Solar-charged GPS neckband
- Lightweight per-animal device with multi-year service life under sun-rich SA conditions.
- Map-based paddock design
- Draw, save and rotate paddocks from a phone or desktop. No posts, no wire.
- Audio-cue training
- Animals learn the boundary through sound; gentle pulses are the rare exception, not the rule.
- Cellular & LoRa connectivity
- Coverage planned around SADC connectivity realities — phased to where networks support commercial success.
Live tracking · simulation
Watch your herd from anywhere in Africa.
This is a live simulation based on a test device — not actual customer herd data. Hover the map to see where eShepherd runs today, and test how the system responds to a breach.
Right now
2 417
animals reporting position across the network
Try it
Test a breach.
Push one animal across the virtual fence and watch how fast the system responds.
No alerts. The herd is exactly where you left it.
Pasture & ecosystem
Look after your grass, and your soil looks after itself.
Poorly managed grazing unwinds the same cycles farms depend on. Bare ground sheds water instead of absorbing it; nutrients concentrate around fence lines; gully erosion follows.
eShepherd enables structured, adaptive rotation across the whole farm — not just where the fencing happens to sit. The result is denser veld, more ground cover, deeper root systems and higher stocking rates over time.
For dairy operations, the same logic translates directly to pasture-based paddock management.
Ready to scope a pilot?
We work with producers, cooperatives and government programmes to size and deploy eShepherd across high-risk and high-value herds.