CattleEye to enhance its AI system capabilities with significant innovation investment

Belfast-based AI company CattleEye, a subsidiary of GEA Farm Technologies, is
further investing in Research and Development (R&D) to enhance the capabilities of
its AI livestock system and further develop GEA’s digital offering for the dairy farming
sector. It also plans to create 20 new jobs.

Founded in 2019, CattleEye provides an AI livestock monitoring system that uses
machine learning to monitor cattle without the need for physical devices. Today, the
system is used in over 140 farms across the UK, Europe, the US and Australia,
monitoring over 200,000 cattle across 23 different countries.

Making the announcement, Terry Canning, CattleEye co-founder and 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.

“These 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.”

CattleEye was acquired in 2024 by GEA Farm Technologies, headquartered in
Germany.

Terry Canning added: “We are planning to create additional jobs to build our
presence within the GEA Group. The new team will improve efficiencies and
the user experience of GEA’s Dairy Net App, and we are confident this will lead
us to more growth to support app development in the future.”

The roles on offer include software engineers and user experience executives. The
company aims to have all roles filled by January 2027.

Welcoming the investment during a visit to the company, Vicky Kell, Director of
Innovation, Research and Development at Invest NI said: “This investment in R&D
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.”

Vicky Kell added: “In addition to the AI development, we’ve worked closely with
CattleEye to secure these new jobs for Northern Ireland over other locations.
The new team will strengthen CattleEye’s place in the global GEA operation
and enhance the region’s credibility as a location for agri-tech.”

Invest NI’s R&D support for this project is part funded by the UK Government Shared
Prosperity Fund (SPF).