SmartCow Alternative 2026: SmartHerd, agate.ch or Herdy?

SmartCow, the joint herd management app of Swissgenetics, swissherdbook, Braunvieh Schweiz and Mutterkuh Schweiz, is being replaced. Its successor SmartHerd has been live since 29 June 2026, and the breeding organisations put it plainly: SmartHerd replaces SmartCow, Holstein Mobile and HolsteinVision. (swissherdbook announcement, smartherd.ch)

If you are now looking for a SmartCow alternative, the right choice depends on two questions: are you a member of one of the participating breeding organisations, and do you keep sheep or goats alongside your cattle? This article records what is known so far and compares the three paths that remain.

Is SmartCow being shut down?

Replaced yes, shut down not yet. This is where things stand on 21 September 2026:

Two things follow. First: for Holstein Switzerland's sister apps, deactivation came three days before SmartHerd launched, without a long transition period. There is no basis for assuming SmartCow will keep running for months. Second: SmartCow was free for any farm with an Agate login, membership or not. SmartHerd is free for members only. For non-members, billing starts at the end of 2026, and they can then decide whether to continue.

Which SmartCow alternative fits your farm?

The following sections address the two bottom rows: farms with more than one species and farms without a breeding organisation.

What SmartHerd does, and what it is not built for

By its own description, SmartHerd connects functions of the animal movement database with breeding and herd management data: animal search and lists, notifications of births, inseminations and health data, an action calendar with push notifications, medication management, ear tag ordering, breeding values and performance data. It runs as a web app on phone, tablet and computer, with CH-Login or AGOV. For cattle breeding, that is a complete package, and Herdy rebuilds none of it.

Two limits decide the choice. SmartHerd is an application of the cattle breeding organisations; sheep and goats do not appear in it, just as they did not in SmartCow. And access requires an Agate number plus membership in a participating breeding organisation or registration as a non-member.

Whether SmartHerd submits alpine summering as a group notification or provides a stock check at the press of a button cannot be determined from the published material. So we write «no public information», not «No».

What Herdy does differently

Herdy is built for farms with more than one species. Forty suckler cows and a hundred sheep are the normal case in Switzerland, and until now that mostly meant: one app for the cattle, paper for the rest.

• All species in the same herd: cattle, sheep, goats and pigs in one animal list, one treatment journal, one report. The interface adapts to the species.
• TVD notifications straight from the animal record: birth, arrival, departure and death go to the TVD through the official interface for cattle, sheep and goats, where the interface allows it. The confirmation number comes back with a timestamp.
• Stock from the TVD: Herdy fetches your animals with ear tag numbers, sex and dates of birth from the animal movement database. Nothing is retyped.
• Alpine summering as a group notification for sheep, goats and cattle, with the accompanying document for sheep and goats.
• Everything that comes after the notification: treatment journal and inventory list under TAMV Art. 28 with withdrawal periods, RAUS exercise log, stock check as PDF, breeding with heats, matings and births, weights, hoof care.
• Four languages: German, French, Italian, English. Several people per farm with graded permissions.

The difference from a pure notification app: one animal event satisfies several obligations at once. You record a treatment once, and the journal is kept, the withdrawal period stored and the inspection prepared.

What Herdy does not do

So that you do not start with the wrong expectations:

• No herd book, no breeding values, no milk yield. Herdy reports to the TVD, not to Braunvieh Schweiz, swissherdbook, Holstein Switzerland or Mutterkuh Schweiz. Inseminations and births for the herd book you continue to report there, meaning in SmartHerd.
• No direct import from SmartCow. Herdy fetches the livestock from the TVD. Treatments, heats and notes that only existed in SmartCow you export there and upload as CSV afterwards.
• Arrival notifications for goats have been deactivated by the TVD at the interface; that one step stays on agate.ch. Herdy points this out in the form.
• Herdy costs money, from CHF 99 per year after a 14-day trial without a credit card. For a cattle-only farm that only wants to notify, agate.ch is the more honest recommendation.

Can I use SmartHerd and Herdy side by side?

Yes, and for mixed farms this is often the most sensible answer: SmartHerd for the herd book and breeding data of the cattle, Herdy for the whole livestock with notifications, treatment journal, exercise log and stock check. Both report through the same Agate login. What you would have to keep twice is the cattle birth notification to the TVD; submit it where you make the herd-book notification anyway, and let Herdy pick up the stock from the TVD at the next reconciliation.

Switching in four steps

1. Clarify your membership. Member of a participating breeding organisation: SmartHerd is free. Non-member: CHF 30 per semester from the end of 2026, and you can decide then.
2. Export from SmartCow whatever only exists there. Treatments, heats, notes. Do it while the app is running, not once it is gone.
3. Test the alternative in parallel. With Herdy, you connect the farm through the Agate login and fetch the stock from the TVD; SmartCow keeps running alongside.
4. Switch before you have to. No shutdown date is known, which does not mean there is none.

Conclusion

For herd-book farms, the replacement of SmartCow is a modernisation, not a loss: SmartHerd is the intended successor, and it is free for members. Two groups have to decide afresh. Non-members, for whom SmartHerd costs money from the end of 2026. And mixed farms, whose sheep and goats never appeared in either app. For both: the animals live in the TVD, not in the app. That is why switching is not retyping.

The rows where Herdy and SmartHerd genuinely differ are on the SmartCow alternative comparison page, dated and sourced. Anyone who wants to see all providers side by side finds them in the comparison of Swiss herd management apps.

Import your TVD stock and try Herdy free for 14 days →