United Kingdom farming startup, Hectare Agritech, has created Tudder, a Tinder-style app that helps farmers find breeding matches by viewing pictures of cattle with details of their age, location and owner.
When users swipe right to show interest or left to reject a possible match, they hear a mooing sound.
Hectare Agritech chief executive, Doug Bairner, said matchmaking through online dating is well-suited for breeding stock — much more so than it can be for humans.
“You can make a decision based on science rather than someone’s self-proclaimed sense of humour,” he said.
“There’s so much genetic data sitting in the background behind breeding stock.”
Farmers that swipe right on the image of a cow, or group of cows, are then directed to the company’s livestock-buying website.
From there they can contact the owner and make an offer.
“We’ve had over 40,000 searches in the last 24 hours so that equates to one in every three UK farmers putting a search into our app,” Mr Bairner said.
“The app takes it out of the hands of a subjective guess of whether you’re going to get on with somebody and puts it into the realm of genetic science, which can only be good for rearing the right stock and having a successful farm business.
Tudder down under
Mr Bairner said given the app’s popularity the company will keep an eye on downloads in other countries and may launch it outside the UK.
Victorian dairy farmer Adam Jenkins said he would have a crack at the app and sees potential for its use in Australia.
“I think it’s hilarious and something you can have a bit of fun with.
“The people in the cow world, particularly the dairy industry, they love their cows and love showing cows.
“But also on a serious side, its matching cows across the continent, which would be pretty attractive — sitting down and having a bit of a swipe left or right.”
As for what would make him swipe right?
“I’d have to talk to Brownie and a few of the girls and see what they’re really wanting,” Mr Jenkins said.
“We’d have to look at what their genetics look like and how that fits in with our cross-bred system.”
Happy Valentine’s Day, who could forget Febudairy pic.twitter.com/x7G2GJ0GSb
— Adam jenkins (@Adam_Jenkins2) 13 de febrero de 2019
Mr Jenkins regularly expresses his love for his “girls” with videos on Twitter and Valentine’s Day was cause for a special shout-out.
“As farmers we really care for animals and I just want to show some love and appreciation for the job they do,” he said.
