Armidale’s own Optiweigh has been recognised on the world stage, taking out the title of “Herd Management Solution of the Year” at the 2025 AgTech Breakthrough Awards .
The annual awards program, run by AgTech Breakthrough, highlights the most innovative agricultural and food technology companies from around the globe. This year’s competition reviewed thousands of nominations across categories including farm management, robotics, analytics, and food technology.
Optiweigh, founded and developed in Armidale, provides an automated in-paddock livestock weighing system that enables producers to monitor livestock performance without the need for traditional yard weigh-ins. The portable solution can be set up in minutes and delivers liveweight data straight to producers’ devices.
“Think of Optiweigh not just as your farm’s new best friend but as your window into everything that’s going on with your livestock. It’s your eyes and ears even when you’re not there or when you’re managing your operation remotely,” said Bill and Jacqui Mitchell, founders of Optiweigh.
“We are so pleased to accept ‘Herd Management Solution of the Year’ from AgTech Breakthrough.”
“Precision livestock management has been widely discussed but rarely delivered in such a commercially viable way, making Optiweigh the exception.
“We’re proud to deliver this game-changer that enables data to aid decision-making to increase productivity, sustainability, and profitability.”
The system works by enticing cattle onto the unit with an attractant. As the animals step on, their electronic identification is recorded and their front feet weighed. That data is sent to the cloud, where an algorithm calculates total body weight. Liveweight information is updated multiple times a day and sent to any device. Producers also receive a daily email summary and can access further details via the Optiweigh website.
Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of AgTech Breakthrough, said Optiweigh was standing out in a competitive and fast-changing sector.
“Optiweigh is precision livestock management made simple, effective and easy.
“While many precision agriculture solutions promise data-driven insights, few translate into practical, real-world benefits. Producers are hard-pressed to receive immediate, accurate insights into environmental impact alongside traditional performance metrics,” he said.
In a field dominated by AI and smart tech, the practicality of Optiweigh stood tall.
“As the industry continues to embrace smarter, more integrated farm technologies, Optiweigh is paving the way with real-time weight tracking, expanded animal monitoring, and environmental insights that come together in a single, practical solution,” Vaughan said.
“By combining weight tracking with methane measurement, Optiweigh embodies next-generation precision agriculture, where efficiency, profitability, and environmental responsibility go hand in hand.”
Beyond livestock weighing, Optiweigh has also partnered with Agscent to add methane emissions monitoring to its platform. It is the first product in the world able to measure methane emissions while animals are being weighed, with the data delivered remotely and automatically in real time.
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