How agritech entrepreneurs are helping cows in the mood for love
Playing cupid to cows isn’t what you’d call a traditional agricultural job, but agri-tech company SellMyLivestock aren’t ones for doing things the conventional way.
The UK-based start-up made headlines around the world last Valentine’s Day after they launched ‘Tudder’, a Tinder-inspired dating app designed to help farmers match potential partners for their cattle.
By swiping right on cows they liked the look of, farmers were taken through to the SellMyLivestock website, where they were able to look at more photos and information about the animal, before deciding if they might like to bring them home to meet their bull.
It might have been a tongue-in-cheek stunt to grab media attention, but there was a point to it: while livestock trading might have gone on for centuries, there is a modern way to do it.
And by making use of the huge amounts of data which are collected about breeding animals, SellMyLivestock wanted to prove that finding and buying the right animals can be easier and more efficient than ever before.
Market closures
The idea for the website came in 2014 when beef farmer Dan Luff was faced with his local livestock market closing down. With his next nearest market in Somerset, he realised…