SmartCow is being replaced. What now?
For a herd-book farm with cattle, SmartHerd is the right successor, and we say that first. The question is what happens to the animals SmartHerd is not built for either.
No credit card.
As of 21 September 2026. Facts on SmartCow and SmartHerd are taken from the breeding organisations' public announcements. Found a mistake? Write to us, we correct it and reset the date.
What changes, with dates.
SmartCow was the joint app of Swissgenetics, swissherdbook, Braunvieh Schweiz and Mutterkuh Schweiz, free for any farm with an Agate login. This is where the replacement stands:
23 February 2025
swissherdbook announces that SmartCow will be replaced by a new web app. The app is over ten years old and has around 12,000 active users.
29 June 2026
SmartHerd goes live on smartherd.ch. The breeding organisations state: SmartHerd replaces SmartCow, Holstein Mobile and HolsteinVision.
No shutdown date
No shutdown date has been published for SmartCow itself to date. HolsteinVision and Holstein Mobile were deactivated on 26 June 2026.
End of 2026
Farms without membership in a participating breeding organisation will be informed: SmartHerd will cost them CHF 30 per semester. Nothing is billed until then.
Anyone who used SmartCow for free as a non-member will therefore decide again at the end of 2026. Anyone who keeps sheep or goats next to cattle had nothing for those animals in SmartCow and has nothing in SmartHerd either.
First: when SmartHerd is the right choice.
If you are a member of Braunvieh Schweiz, swissherdbook, Holstein Switzerland or Mutterkuh Schweiz and keep only cattle, take SmartHerd. It is free for you, it shows breeding values and performance data, reports inseminations and births to your breeding organisation and orders ear tags. Herdy has none of that, and we are not building any of it.
If breeding is your main concern, the same applies. Herd book, breeding values and milk yield are not built in Herdy and are not on the plan.
SmartCow was a good tool, and being replaced after more than ten years is normal. This page is not about what SmartHerd gets wrong. It is about the animals it is not made for.
Herdy is the better choice when sheep or goats make up a substantial part of your farm, alone or alongside cattle, or when you belong to no breeding organisation and need more for your cattle than the portal on agate.ch.
The rows where the two genuinely differ.
Everything both do: cattle TVD notifications, animal list, medication and treatments, is left out. It would be a long list with nothing to say.
| HerdySwiss herd management | SmartHerd | |
|---|---|---|
| Species | Sheep, goats, cattle, pigs (group notification in preparation) | Cattle |
| Submit TVD notifications yourself | For cattle, sheep and goats, where the interface allows it | For cattle |
| Breeding values, performance data, insemination reporting to the breeding organisation | No | Yes |
| Treatment journal under the TAMV | Journal and inventory list under Art. 28, for all species | Medication management and health data for cattle |
| Alpine summering as a group notification | Yes | no public information |
| Requirement | Agate login | Agate number; membership in a participating breeding organisation or registration as a non-member |
| Languages | German, French, Italian, English | German, French, Italian |
| Price | from CHF 99/year | Free for members of a participating breeding organisation, otherwise CHF 30/semester (billing announced from end of 2026) |
SmartHerd for breeding, Herdy for all your animals.
For a farm with thirty suckler cows and eighty sheep, this is often the most sensible answer: you take SmartHerd for the herd book and breeding data and run the whole livestock in Herdy, cattle and sheep side by side in the same herd. Every animal gets the same treatment: its own notifications, a treatment journal with withdrawal periods, an exercise log and a stock check at the press of a button. Herdy reports through your own Agate login, the same one you already used for SmartCow.
Your herd is already in the TVD, not in SmartCow. Herdy fetches it: cattle, sheep and goats, with ear tag numbers, sex and dates of birth. Whatever is not in the TVD, treatments for example, comes in via CSV. And everything comes back out as CSV or PDF.
Switching and data transferFrequently asked questions about the SmartCow alternative.
SmartCow is being replaced by SmartHerd: SmartHerd has been live since 29 June 2026, and the breeding organisations state that it replaces SmartCow. They have not published a shutdown date for SmartCow to date; the app is still in the stores. For the sister apps HolsteinVision and Holstein Mobile, deactivation came three days before SmartHerd launched. Anyone counting on SmartCow to keep running should not.
Put your livestock next to it for two weeks.
14 days free, no credit card. Your stock comes from the TVD, with the same Agate login as for SmartCow.