So you think the dating scene is like a meat market? Well, wait till you hear about the latest matchmaking app.
Following the example of Tinder, UK farming start-up Hectare has launched its own equivalent for livestock and called it Tudder.
The app features data profiles of animals from 42,000 UK farms in an effort to help farmers find the perfect breeding partner for their cattle.
Farmers can view pictures of bulls or cows and swipe right to show interest.
Hectare Agritech, which also runs online grain marketplace Graindex, says its aim is “reinventing farm trading – and making farmers’ lives easier”.
It says it has raised more than £3m from investors and organisations, including grant funding from government schemes, while tennis player Andy Murray is listed as one of its investors.
Cupid for cattle
Hectare inaugurated its Sell My Livestock website in 2014 and says one-third of UK farms already use it to trade animals.
The new app, which links to that existing website, is described as “a bit of fun”, with an app store description replete with terrible puns.
For instance, the app “seeks to unite sheepish farm animals with their soulmates” and is designed for farmers “playing the role of moo-pid”.
Marcus Lampard, a farmer in Carmarthenshire in southwest Wales, has one pedigree beef shorthorn breeding bull listed on the app and says it’s a lot easier to sell livestock online.
“Going to market is a nuisance,” he said. “If I go to an open market with a bull, and then maybe bring it back, it shuts everything down on the farm for at least two weeks.’’
Lampard, 76, said his daughter lists the cows online for him. “At my age we think we’re quite techy, but our grandchildren think we’re hopeless,” he said.
Hectare raised over 3 million pounds ($3.9 million) from investors including government programs, author Richard Koch and tennis player Andy Murray, according to its website.
About a third of U.K. farms use Hectare’s platforms to trade livestock and cereals, Chief Executive Officer Doug Bairner said by email, after the app was described in the Sunday Times.
“Matching breeding livestock online should be even easier than matching people,” Bairner said. “Sheep breeding is similarly data driven so maybe ‘ewe-Harmony’ should be next.”
Hectare’s chief executive, Doug Bairner, said that matching breeding livestock “should be even easier than matching people”.
Listings on offer on Tudder on Monday included pedigree Welsh Black cows from a farm in Conwy, Holstein Friesian heifers from County Cork in Ireland and pedigree Simmental breeding heifers in Oxfordshire.
Farmers who swipe right on those images can then contact the owner for further details, speeding up a process that can often involve transporting animals over long distances.
