CowManager
CowManager is a dairy herd monitoring system pairing an ear sensor that measures ear temperature, rumination, eating and activity with cloud software, alerting farmers to sick cows up to three days before clinical signs appear.
What is CowManager?
CowManager is a dairy herd monitoring system built around an ear sensor that clips around the cow's official RFID identification tag. The sensor continuously measures ear temperature alongside rumination, eating, activity, inactivity and highly active behaviour. Readings travel to wireless routers, including solar-powered units that can be placed in barns, on pasture or in feedlots, and reach the farmer through a web dashboard, mobile apps and a Windows program called CowManager Control Center. The vendor grounds the approach in a physiological claim: when a cow develops an infection, blood in the ears moves towards the vital organs, so ear temperature shifts before anything else becomes visible.
The system is sold as a set of modules. Health flags disease early and tracks recovery, raising graded alerts labelled Suspicious, Sick, Very sick and No Movement, and is presented as catching conditions such as displaced abomasum, mastitis, ketosis and E. coli. Fertility identifies heats and the insemination window. Transition and Nutrition cover the calving period, heat stress and ration management, while Youngstock follows calves and heifers. Efficiency tools sit alongside them: Find my Cow locates an animal with Locator and Flash, Auto Drafting and the regional Sort my Cow and Draft my Cow variants separate alerted cows automatically, and MultiView grants a vet, nutritionist or staff member remote access to selected data.
Data lands in a customisable drag-and-drop dashboard of widgets, with per-cow graphs of rumination, eating, resting and activity by hour or by day, and each animal's ear temperature compared with the herd average. CowManager states it updates hardware and software every two weeks, and lists 44 herd management systems it connects to, some of them through a two-way interface. Its own documentation describes combining temperature with artificial intelligence and evolving algorithms to generate the alerts.
The publisher, CowManager B.V., is based in Harmelen in the Netherlands and traces the product line to 2004. It claims deployments from 20 to 20,000 cows. A second device, the quarter-level Milk Sensor, is announced but its own page states it is still under development.
What it does
- Detect illness up to three days before clinical signs, then follow the recovery
- Identify heats and pinpoint the insemination window
- Monitor transition cows, heat stress and ration performance
- Track calves and heifers through their growth stages
- Locate an individual cow in the barn or on pasture within seconds
- Automatically draft alerted cows away from the herd through a sorting gate
- Share selected cow data remotely with vets, nutritionists and staff
When to use CowManager / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if CowManager is the right fit.
When to use CowManager
- Dairy farmers who want disease detected before clinical signs appear rather than after
- Large-scale dairy operations managing hundreds or thousands of cows across several sites
- Herd managers chasing better conception rates through accurate heat and insemination timing
- Farms already running one of the 44 supported herd management systems and wanting sensor data inside it
- Operations that share day-to-day decisions with an external vet, nutritionist or advisor
When not to use CowManager
- Anyone expecting a software-only subscription: ear sensors and routers must be bought first
- Buyers who need to compare published prices before speaking to a salesperson
- Consumers and hobby keepers, since the terms are explicitly business-to-business only
- Livestock enterprises outside dairy cattle, such as beef finishing, sheep, pigs or poultry
- Organisations whose procurement requires a named hosting country or a security certification
How to use CowManager
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Request a quote in three steps, choosing modules, optional tools and a payment term
- Arrange a demonstration with a local representative to see the system running
- Have the dealer install the ear sensors, fitting each around the cow's existing RFID tag
- Position the wireless routers, using solar units for pasture and feedlots
- Install the CowManager Control Center program on a farm PC where drafting or export is needed
- Connect your existing herd management system through one of the supported integrations
- Open the web dashboard or the iOS or Android app to see live herd data
- Arrange the drag-and-drop widgets so the alerts that matter to you sit on the home screen
- Grant your vet, nutritionist and staff selective remote access through MultiView
- Work the daily alert list, and consult the online knowledge base or dealer support when needed
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Ear temperature adds a physiological signal that movement-only sensors cannot provide
- Lifetime warranty runs as long as the subscription, with no hardware reinvestment on renewal
- Sensors are reusable between cows, need no recharging and no collar adjustment
- Broad interoperability with 44 herd management systems, some bidirectional
- Hardware cost can be spread over two or five years against a thirty percent deposit
- Volume and payment-term discounts are published, up to ten percent over five years
- Local dealer network and offices across roughly thirty countries
Cons
- No price is published at all: no entry point, no tariff, not even a currency
- No free plan and no documented free trial; the online demo app is currently unavailable
- Upfront hardware purchase is unavoidable, so the entry ticket is substantial
- The terms permit training on customer data with no opt-out documented anywhere
- Aggregated data may be commercialised and retained indefinitely
- No hosting country, sub-processor list or security certification is published
- The Milk Sensor is promoted on the homepage but its own page says it is still under development
Pricing & Plans
There is no free plan and no published price. CowManager does not display a rate card, an entry price or even a currency anywhere on its site: the pricing page sets out a method rather than amounts, inviting the buyer to choose modules, add optional functionalities and select a payment term before requesting a quotation from a local representative. The commercial structure is nonetheless described. It combines a hardware purchase, covering ear sensors and routers, with a software subscription. Software carries a volume discount based on the number of sensors, and a discount by payment term of nought percent monthly, one percent quarterly, two percent yearly and ten percent over five years. Hardware payments may be spread across two or five years against a thirty percent deposit in both cases. The terms state that fees exclude VAT and that invoices are issued in euro unless the order specifies otherwise, which fixes the invoicing currency without disclosing any amount. A lifetime warranty is included for the duration of the service, and extending a contract requires no further hardware investment.
- early disease detection and detailed recovery monitoring
- heat detection and insemination timing
- transition period
- heat stress and feed management
- Find my Cow
- a cow locator using Locator and Flash tools
- Auto Drafting
- automatic separation of cows on heat or health alerts
- lifetime warranty
- local support
- ongoing updates
- herd management integrations
- iOS and Android app
- MultiView and the online knowledge base
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how CowManager handles your data.
GDPR overview
The GDPR is implemented concretely, but the published statement has a limited scope. CowManager's privacy statement, last amended on 19 August 2026, covers prospects, applicants, business contacts, suppliers, website visitors and third parties, and states explicitly that it does not apply to CowManager services and products. It sets out the legal bases relied on, the full list of data subject rights, a seven-year retention rule for accounting records, possible transfers outside the EEA under appropriate safeguards, and names the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens as supervisory authority; privacy@cowmanager.com is the contact point. Product data is handled in the terms instead, where CowManager acts as processor for customer personal data and undertakes to sign a data processing agreement incorporating Standard Contractual Clauses. The site never states in so many words that it is GDPR compliant.
Who owns the data?
Under clause 12.2 of the Master Terms & Conditions, the customer retains ownership of all Customer Data. The customer nonetheless grants CowManager and its affiliates a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, copy, process, transmit, display and otherwise use that data, together with Operational Data, to run and secure the service, investigate incidents, fix defects, develop and train algorithms, generate Aggregated Data and meet legal obligations. Customers may instruct CowManager to share their data with nominated vets, dealers or other third parties, but remain solely responsible for those choices and for obtaining any consent required.
Reuse rights
Customers may use their own data freely: they own it, and clause 12 lets them export it at any point during the subscription through the available tools or APIs. They may also direct CowManager to share selected data with vets, nutritionists, staff or dealers, which is what the MultiView function implements in practice; responsibility for those disclosures, and for any consent they require, stays with the customer. On CowManager's side, the licence granted in clause 12.2 explicitly extends to developing, training and improving its algorithms, features and overall quality. Clause 12.3 goes further for Aggregated Data, which the vendor may use, disclose, commercialise and retain indefinitely for benchmarking, analytics, product improvement and market research, provided it does not identify the customer. No mechanism for excluding data from that training appears in the terms.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
CowManager does not publish where the platform stores its data. No hosting country, region or provider is named for the service itself, and no sub-processor list exists. The only host named anywhere is TRUE, credited in the site footer for hosting the marketing website and its daily backups; that credit covers the public site, not the herd monitoring platform, and should not be read as a statement about where cow or account data lives. The website itself resolves to an IP address operated by TrueServer BV in Lelystad, the Netherlands, which is consistent with that footer credit and says nothing more. Two indirect signals exist. The privacy statement warns that personal data may be transferred outside the European Economic Area, giving the United States as an example, subject to appropriate safeguards. The terms require a data processing agreement incorporating Standard Contractual Clauses where the law demands one. Buyers with data residency requirements will therefore need to obtain the hosting location in writing during the quotation process, because nothing on the site answers the question.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting CowManager.
- The terms let CowManager train its algorithms on your herd data, and no opt-out is documented
- Aggregated data derived from your farm may be commercialised and kept indefinitely
- The site contradicts itself on its own age, dating the story to 1984 in one paragraph and 2004 in the next; the company was registered in 2013
- The Milk Sensor appears on the homepage as part of the platform, yet its own page states it is under development
- No hosting country is published for the platform: the TRUE credit in the footer covers the website only
- Alerts can encourage reacting to a screen instead of observing the animal, and over-reliance may erode stockmanship
- With no public pricing, the cost of ownership only becomes visible late, after a sales conversation
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low for the farmer, but it is a hardware installation rather than a signup. CowManager describes four steps: fit the sensor around the cow's existing RFID tag in a single movement, install the router or solar router, receive data on computer and smartphone, then connect the herd management system. There are no batteries to recharge and no collars to adjust, and sensors move between animals. A local dealer handles installation and support, with remote assistance over TeamViewer. Farms using Auto Drafting or data export must also install the Windows Control Center program.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind CowManager
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What does the CowManager ear sensor actually measure?
How early does it warn me that a cow is unwell?
Which modules and tools are available?
How much does CowManager cost?
Is there a free trial or a free plan?
Does it work with my herd management software?
Is there a mobile app?
Who owns the data, and is it used to train algorithms?
What warranty and contract terms apply?
Who is behind CowManager?
Should you pick CowManager?
CowManager occupies a well-defined niche: continuous, sensor-based monitoring of dairy cattle, sold as hardware plus a software subscription through a network of local dealers. Its differentiator is genuine rather than cosmetic. Where many livestock sensors track movement alone, CowManager measures ear temperature together with rumination, eating and activity, and the vendor has been building on that combination since 2004. The commercial package is unusually generous in one respect: a lifetime warranty runs for as long as the service subscription does, and renewing a contract requires no fresh investment in hardware.
The reservations are mostly about what is not published. No price appears anywhere on the site. The pricing page describes a method, not a tariff: choose modules, choose options, choose a payment term, then ask a local representative for a quote. There is no free plan, no documented free trial, and the self-service demo application is currently offline, leaving a scheduled appointment with a representative as the only way to see the product. Buyers should also read clause 12 of the terms carefully. Customers keep ownership of their data, but they grant CowManager a licence that expressly covers training and improving its algorithms, and aggregated data may be commercialised and kept indefinitely. No opt-out appears anywhere in the thirty pages.
Two further gaps deserve mention: the company names no hosting country for the platform, and claims no security certification. Prospective buyers with procurement requirements will need to raise both in the quotation process. For a mid-sized or large dairy operation already running one of the 44 supported herd management systems, the fit is strong; anyone who needs to compare costs before talking to a salesperson will find nothing to work with.
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