Frequently Asked Questions

SmartTags

  • Smart ear tags are attached to each animal’s ear, allowing farmers to monitor their cattle’s location, behaviour, and status in real-time. These tags go beyond basic identification (like standard RFID tags) by continuously tracking where cattle are, how much they’re moving, and even alerting farmers to unusual behaviours. This helps farmers make more informed decisions about animal welfare and farm operations.

    The tags communicate through a LoRaWAN network. This means they send short, frequent data updates (up to 50 times a day*) to a nearby gateway. The gateway collects this data and relays it, providing farmers with up-to-date insights. Unlike other devices, these tags don’t need to be within cell service; only the gateway needs a connection, which is usually placed in a high location (like a shed roof, mast, or windmill) to maximise range.

  • Yes. Our tags will alert you when the tag leaves a boundary or paddock OR when the tag has dropped, indicating that the tag may have been removed.

  • Range is dependent on geography and obstructions between the tag and any of our gateways.

    On average, our tags are detectable up to 5-10kms from a gateway. If the land is clear from obstructions and relatively flat, this can extend to over 20kms. 

  • GPS location, historical movement, activity levels, and access to points of interest.

  • Installation is very straightforward. You can use standard management tag applicators and follow standard hygiene procedures.

  • Yes! Simply remove the pin and you can then reuse them on another animal.

    To change this on the dashboard, simply change the name to update the profile.

  • In full sunlight, the tags report up to every 15 minutes. In overcast weather or overnight, the tags will adjust their update intervals in order to best preserve charge.

  • We recommend tagging all of your most valuable animals like bulls and breeding cows. If you only need to monitor location of the mob you can tag roughly 30% to provide that information.

SmartTrack

  • Yes they can be swapped between vehicles. In the Pulse Dashboard, you can select what type of vehicle it is and also provide a custom name for your own needs.

  • As high as possible, and not crowded by any metallic objects (e.g roof racks over the top).

    It will generally work fine anywhere as long as it isn't under or inside the vehicle. For theft and ensuring the asset tracker is tied, we would suggest zip ties to keep them in place.

SmartWater

  • The monitor is mounted on top of the tank, the monitor mount requires a 2” hole to be drilled in the tank and is then fixed with 4 self taping screws. The monitor sits on top of the mount, with its solar panel oriented north and is secured with a single allen screw.

  • Water depth in cm or water level in % full

SmartFence

  • By measuring the voltage of the fence (far from the energiser).

    Low voltage alerts occur when

    • the fence is broken/cut,

    • vegetation grows up and touches the fence - reducing its effectiveness, or

    • when the energiser exhibits a fault (or flat battery as some are solar powered).

Pulse Dashboard / Companion Mobile App

  • The Pulse Dashboard has access to our full suite of insights including historical movements, animal health and more.

    The Companion App is an alerts, quick location view and task management tool for use when you are out and about on your property.

    The Companion App can be used without cell coverage for a limited range of features like task management.

  • We have the Smart Paddock Companion App for both iOS and Android.

    This allows you to view the current location of your animals as well as their movement over the last day. You will also receive alerts to the app if the animals have strayed from the property (or a particular paddock if you set up paddock alerts for an animal).

    The web app is accessible on mobile, however it is not optimised for it. Our Pulse Dashboard is best accessed via a desktop or laptop.

  • Unlimited! It's up to you to decide how many users you want.

Network / Connection

  • We would ideally like to find a spot on your property that has some amount of cellular reception, even if only 1 bar. This will be where we would install the gateway (as it is only the gateway that needs a direct connection to the mobile network - all the tags and other devices communicate via LoRaWAN to the gateway, and then the gateway forwards these messages to our servers over the internet via the phone towers).

    The messages that the gateway forwards are only very small (only a couple dozen bytes at a time), far less than is used for a voice call so even in areas where voice calls may be a struggle the gateway should still perform.

    If there is absolutely no phone reception though, we may still be able to get you access via WiFi or satellite connections.

  • Yes! We have a solar gateway specifically for this. You will still need to have reception for it to work.

  • This will depend on the size of your property, the topography and the density of the tree cover.

    Flat, and relatively small (up to approx 5 - 10km from one side to the other) should be able to be serviced with two gateways.

    Larger or undulating land may require more to achieve good coverage of the entire property.

  • We include a printed user guide to help you with setting up your gateway as well as deploying tags onto animals.

    If you have any further questions or need any additional assistance we are here to help! Just reach out to us by emailing support@smartpaddock.com

  • A little over 30cm, depending on the type of gateway. It is quite small and weighs less than 5kg.