I expect the lack of activity on the News page here is a signal that something has been up at SmartShepherd. It has.
In short - Covid kicked the guts out of us at a time when we were attempting to expand. We couldn't get hardware manufactured due to issues with our overseas manufacturing partner (not their fault). Due to border lockdowns in Australia our distribution partner struggled to get to customers. In short we were dead in the water for close to two years. The CEO had to take external employment and run SmartShepherd as a side project. A potential sale of the technology fell through in acrimonious circumstances which was another kick in the guts we didn't need.
...but it's still here. The services are still running. We are still servicing customers in Australia, New Zealand and Chile. A recent milestone of over 400,000 animals in the system was reached. New Zealand research has given us a possible new product in the shape of a virtual ram harness system that can track ram interest in ewes, giving us insight into when ewes are cycling and their likely conception date.
These developments have given SmartShepherd an important new goal: reducing methane emissions in Sheep flocks. By optimising a flock we can offer insights into retaining flock productivity while reducing the number of ewes required to do so. Ewes that are infertile, who are incapable of carrying a lamb, who are poor mothers. This can be somewhere around 15 percent of a flock and the key to making an instant and measurable improvement in successful breeding.
So...we're down. We're not out. Watch this space.