Free & open source · Built by dairy farmers

Never miss a heat. Never miss a calving.

Your barnYour dataOur vision

Free camera software that watches your barn day and night. The moment a cow is in heat or starts calving, a photo lands on your phone.

Start with installing Watch the video
  • Free, no subscription
  • Runs on your own computer
  • Works with any RTSP camera
  • No collars or transponders
  • Veeteelt
  • Boerderij
  • Nieuwe Oogst
  • Veehouderij Techniek
  • Sterke Erven Melkvee
  • VILT
  • Foodlog
  • Omrop Fryslân
  • NOS Journaal Regio
  • Melk van het Noorden
  • Prikkebord forum
How it works

From barn camera to your phone

No collars, no transponders, no subscription. A camera you may already have, a computer on the farm and your phone: that's all it takes.

  1. 01

    The camera watches

    Any IP camera with an RTSP stream films your cows around the clock. Your cameras keep working as before; the software reads an extra stream.

  2. 02

    The AI recognises

    On your own computer, the AI Detector checks the images every few seconds for mounting behaviour or the stages of calving.

  3. 03

    You get a message

    As soon as the AI is sure enough, Telegram sends you a photo, a close-up and a short clip. You check the cow and make the call.

Explainer video

See CowCatcher AI at work

A short walkthrough in a real barn: from the camera image to the first message on your phone.

The video loads as you scroll down Watch on YouTube
The tools

Two trained models, one detector

Our vision models are trained on thousands of images from real barns. The AI Detector runs them on your own computer and sends the alerts.

Barn camera view where CowCatcher marks a mounting cow with confidence 0.92
Heat detection

CowCatcher

A vision tool that detects mounting behavior a major indicator of cows in heat.

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Calving pen camera view where CalvingCatcher marks the calf's head
Calving detection

CalvingCatcher

A vision tool that detects key stages of calving, from the water bag and legs to the head and the newborn calf

Read more
The software

AI Detector

The app that runs our vision models on your own computer: setup in your browser, alerts on your phone.

Read more
The AI Detector setup in the browser: choose what to detect, such as the Cow Catcher preset
Our story

For farmers, by farmers

Your barnYour dataOur vision

We are a global community of farmers who have jointly developed a powerful computer vision tool – open, honest, and built for real-world practice. What is normally only possible with expensive transponders and costly subscriptions, we make accessible to everyone.

Our software is completely free to download and use. No hidden costs, no obligations. What you download today remains yours and simply works – even years from now. And perhaps even more importantly: all your data remains fully under your own control.

This project was born out of both passion and necessity. We continuously build improvements together with users from all over the world. Feedback, ideas, and contributions from the community make the system smarter and better every day. Because who knows better what works on the farm than the farmer themselves?

Our goal is simple: to advance livestock farming with smart, accessible technology. By sharing knowledge and building together, we accelerate innovation and make modern solutions available to everyone.

  • Community-driven

    Built by farmers, based on real-world experience.

  • Free & open

    Completely free, with no hidden costs or subscriptions. You stay in control.

  • Easy to Use

    We keep it simple: Install it once and it stays working in the background—no need to look at it again!

Real-World Validation & Journey

Ensuring CowCatcherAI meets real farm needs through hands-on testing and field validation

Active Farms
0
Detections
0K+
Countries
0

*We don't actually know exactly how many farms use the software since it's all locally run. This number only features the farms that actively contacted the project.

Curious? Feel free to explore the website, check the installation guide, and get started yourself. If you have questions or run into any issues, our community is here to help.

Start with installing Ask for help
Try it in your browser

Test Our Vision Models

Curious about what our YOLO models see? Try our interactive Hugging Face demos. Upload your own barn images or use our examples to see the AI in action.

Test CowCatcher AI Test CalvingCatcher AI
Installation

Up and running in an afternoon

You install everything yourself, and we explain every step with screenshots. Farmers in their fifties and sixties have done it too.

  1. 01

    Hardware Installation

    Read all about the required cameras, the computer, and how to install them correctly.

    Read more
  2. 02

    Software Download

    Is your hardware ready? Download the AI Detector app for Windows, Mac or Linux and follow the setup.

    Read more
  3. 03

    Using the App

    A tour of every page: recordings, cameras, detectors, alerts and settings.

    Read more
Start with installing
Community

Stuck? Ask a fellow farmer.

In the Telegram group and on Facebook, farmers help each other with cameras, settings and new ideas. Many improvements came straight from users.