There's a version of this story that most beef farmers and ranchers will recognise. You're running cattle on a back block where mobile reception drops out, or on leased land where there's no practical way to put up infrastructure, or an extensive operation where a chunk of land has always sat outside whatever system you use to manage the rest, effectively out of reach.
Globally, over 1.25 million kilometres of virtual fencing have been created using Halter, enough to lap the world 31 times. But there's still plenty of beef country out there it hasn't reached yet.
For many beef operations, the land that's been hardest to manage is often the land with the most potential. When we spoke to farmers and ranchers, they talked about country they'd looked at wanting to graze for years, but managing it properly with what they had on hand wasn't realistic. Much of that country has stayed grazed the way it's always been grazed, simply because the right tool to manage it differently hadn't existed yet.
Satellite-enabled collars are built to change that. As of today, Halter is the first and only virtual fencing provider in the world to offer direct-to-satellite connectivity, powered by Starlink.
Why we built this
When we looked at the operations that wanted to use Halter but hadn't made the jump, infrastructure kept coming up. Tower-based Halter works brilliantly where it works, and there's a reason we built it that way to start. But the remote back blocks and high country stations of New Zealand, the outback properties of Australia, and the ranches in the American West, those were exactly the places where Halter could make the biggest difference, and they were also the places where putting up enough towers to cover the property was never going to add up economically.
Connectivity using on-farm towers is excellent where it's practical, and when there's a lot of data to process, like for dairy farms, towers remain the right answer. But there are large parts of beef country where the answer was always going to be something different, whether that came down to terrain, scale, or the temporary nature of seasonal or leased ground.
So we started working to build a version of Halter that didn't need towers, didn't depend on cell coverage, and could operate reliably in the exact country where farmers and ranchers wanted their cattle to graze.
Building it with farmers and ranchers, not just for them
When we build new technology at Halter, we always do it in collaboration with the people who'll actually use it. We needed operations willing to run the system in the conditions that had always been the hardest, places where the country was remote, the terrain was rugged, and covering the whole property with towers wasn't realistic.
The operations involved were all new to Halter, places where the usual setup wasn't going to work and where direct-to-satellite was the only path that made sense for their land from day one. That made the trial more demanding in a good way. We weren't just testing performance in difficult terrain, we were also learning what it felt like to rely on the system as a primary connection from the very first day.
What we wanted to find out came down to a few things. Did connectivity hold up in the parts of the operation that had always been the problem? Did day-to-day management feel simple enough that farmers didn't need to think about the system underneath? What we kept hearing from trial operations was that direct-to-satellite removed the need to make a trade-off. Instead of choosing between the land they wanted to run and the management system they wanted to use, they could have both. Within days, their cattle were trained to the cues. Within weeks, they were shifting their herds two or three times a day, and fencing off waterways they'd always wanted to protect.
How it works
The collars work together as a system, communicating wirelessly across the herd so no animal is ever isolated. Every few minutes, one collar takes on the job of connecting to Halter via satellite, powered by Starlink, keeping the whole herd up to date with the latest fence boundaries, shift instructions, and location data. That collar also receives new instructions, like virtual fence boundary updates or shift instructions, and shares them back across the herd.
The system is reliable, even in the most remote country.
What makes this a world first
Building this has been one of the most exciting problems we've worked on, and to understand why, it helps to know what satellite has actually meant in collar technology until now.
GPS uses satellites for positioning, telling a collar where it is, but it can't send data back or receive instructions from the cloud. Cellular-connected collars removed the need for on-farm towers, but they still depend on mobile coverage, the same coverage that drops out in the remote country where beef cattle are often run.
When we worked on this, we knew it had to be fully operational in both directions, so you can shift herds, update boundaries, and see the real-time location of your cattle wherever they're grazing. We're stoked to say we're the only virtual fencing company in the world that gives you the capability to do that via satellite.
Who satellite-enabled collars are built for
It's built for farmers and ranchers who've looked at what it would take to put Halter on their operation and done the maths. For some of our trial operations in New Zealand that number was 25 towers, and for ranches in the American West it was as many as 50 to 60. That's the kind of infrastructure requirement that ends a conversation before it starts, and those same operations are now running cattle on Halter via satellite, on country that had previously sat outside what they could realistically manage.
It's also built for the farmer or rancher who has always known there's more value in the land they're not grazing. The back blocks, the remote paddocks and pastures, the country they've driven past for years thinking that if they could get stock in there consistently and manage it properly, it would be worth it. The feed has always been there. Getting cattle onto it in a managed way hasn't been practical, until now.
FAQ
Why did Halter introduce direct-to-satellite connectivity?
For large, remote, or difficult-to-reach operations, the cost and logistics of putting up enough towers to cover the whole property has, at times, been out of reach. We introduced satellite connectivity to change that. Satellite-enabled Halter collars now work anywhere across your beef operation, with no towers or cellular coverage required, whether you're grazing across expansive terrain, managing cattle in remote areas, or in a location where towers were never going to be installed.
How do satellite-enabled collars work?
Satellite-enabled collars connect to the Halter app directly via satellites, downloading instructions for new grazing areas and sending animal information like location data back to the app.
Do I need to be with a particular mobile or internet provider for this to work?
No. Satellite-enabled Halter collars are not limited to any specific provider. You don't need to change your provider or sign up for anything new to get started.
Are the app features different for satellite-enabled collars?
No. Your Halter app experience is exactly the same whether your collars run on satellite or towers. All farmers and ranchers have access to the same features, regardless of which system they're on.
I'm a Halter customer and have more questions. Who do I get in touch with?
Reach out to your Territory Manager or start a chat with our Support team in your Halter app.
Where are satellite-enabled collars available?
Satellite-enabled collars are currently available for beef operations in New Zealand and the United States, with Australia coming soon.
Sky's the limit now.
Got country that's always been out of reach? Talk to your local Halter rep and find out what's possible. We always said the sky was the limit. Funny how that worked out.
.jpg)
