Friday 13 March 2026
Belfast based AI company CattleEye has announced it is investing in 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 jobs.
AI livestock monitoring system
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 more than 200,000 cattle across 23 different countries.
L-R: Terry Canning, CattleEye co-founder and senior director at GEA and Dr Vicky Kell, director of innovation, research and development at Invest NI.
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 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.”
CattleEye was acquired in 2024 by GEA Farm Technologies, headquartered in Germany.
'Planning to create additional jobs'
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.
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.”
Invest NI has offered the company £339,294 of financial support towards the R&D project and the creation of the new jobs.
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.”