PETERSFIELD, England (Reuters) – A Tinder-inspired app is helping farmers match up potential partners for their cattle. Called Tudder – a mix of Tinder and udder – the app lets farmers ‘swipe right’ on cattle they like the look of. They’ll then be directed to a page on the SellMyLivestock (SML) website where they can browse more pictures and data about the animal before deciding to buy.
“Matching livestock online is even easier than it is to match humans because there’s a huge amount of data that sits behind these wonderful animals that predicts what their offspring will be,” explained Doug Bairner, CEO of Hectare Agritech which runs SellMyLivestock (SML) and Graindex, a UK-based online agritech trading platform.
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“That’s hugely valuable to a farmer to be able to know what the milk yield would be and the protein content of that milk and also how easy it will be for the cow to actually calve which makes it safer for both the calf and the cow.”
Launching just in time for Valentine’s Day, the makers believer Tudder is the first ever matchmaking app for livestock.
As with the human equivalent, farmers use their smartphones to first choose whether they’re looking for a male or female; swiping through photos – right for yes and left for no – until they find a match.
Putting all the data at their fingertips puts farmers in contact from all over the country, making trading easier. This is less stressful for the animal and could make the traditional cattle market a thing of the past, according to farmer James Bridger.
“You’ve got all this data of its background and everything which if you’re at a market you might not have had the time to go through for every single random animal, so you’ve got all the data that’s there waiting to be read,” Bridger told Reuters at a farm in Hampshire.
He added: “I think everyone would agree there’s nothing better than seeing an animal in its home, its natural habitat, rather than putting it on a lorry taking the market; it can be a lot stress on the animal.
“Whereas if someone rings up and wants come have a look or even getting it from the picture it’s ideal really from that respect, and they’re happier for it.”
Bairner said SellMyLivestock has listed over £50 million of livestock, feed and bedding to sell in the last twelve months, dispelling the preconception that farmers are rooted in the past.
“It’s a fallacy that farmers don’t embrace technology… there’s a huge amount of technology in a lot of farms nowadays whether it’s precision spraying of crops or dairy units are very, very highly automated nowadays. And there’s a huge amount of genetic science that sits in the background too. So despite the rest the world view of farming, it’s actually very technologically driven.”
