A Belfast-based technology firm which uses AI-powered video analytics to monitor dairy cow health plans to create 20 jobs after making a significant investment in research and development.
CattleEye, founded in 2019 and which has been a subsidiary of Germany-headquartered GEA Farm Technologies since 2024, provides technology designed to reduce the need for manual, subjective, and time-consuming herd monitoring.
Its system is currently used in more than 140 farms across the UK, Europe, the US and Australia, monitoring 200,000 cattle in 23 different countries.
Invest NI has offered the company £339,294 of financial support towards the R&D project and the creation of the new jobs, which include software engineer and user experience executive roles.
Terry Canning, CattleEye co-founder and a senior director at GEA, said: “Investing in our AI livestock system is an important step in our ambition to grow the business and increase our market share against our competitors.
“It will be a significant milestone to integrate CattleEye into GEA’s state-of-the-art herd management systems and to extend the digital footprint in farming.”
He added: “These aspired new functionalities mean farmers can expect offerings which help reduce additional investments in equipment that often aren’t accurate and reduce the extent of necessary animal treatment.
“It will also help customers to farm more efficiently and cut greenhouse gas emissions by using automated data.”
Vicky Kell, director of innovation, research and development at Invest NI said: “This investment is a vote of confidence in our talent, infrastructure and R&D capabilities in Northern Ireland.
“The benefits of investing in R&D are rich, and CattleEye is a testament to how R&D can further develop innovative products which can drive competitiveness in the global market.”
She added: “In addition to the AI development, we’ve worked closely with CattleEye to secure these new jobs for Northern Ireland over other locations.
“When the new team is in place by 2027 it will strengthen CattleEye’s place in the global GEA operation and enhance the region’s credibility as a location for agri-tech.”
