Agritech firm SCR acquired for $250 million

Israeli dairy tech firm SCR, a pioneer in cow monitoring systems, has been bought by US giant Allflex. According to reports, the American company paid $250 million for the Netanya-based company. Allflex acquired 100% of SCR’s shares, which were held by Israel’s Tene Investment Funds.

Commenting on the sale, SCR CEO Yariv Avisar said: “The acquisition will allow us to find new opportunities in the area of milk production and allows us to expand to new markets and develop new products.”

Established in 1976, SCR has developed systems to monitor cow behavior, enabling farmers to anticipate illness, ensure that cows are eating properly and determine when cows are in heat, so that farmers know the ideal time to inseminate their animals. The data is collected using tags equipped with sensors, which transmit the information to a database in the cloud.

In addition to the tag system, SCR offers a PC-based analysis system that keeps track of the entire life cycle of a cow, analyzing milk production, reproduction and health data. The data is transferred from the cow’s tags to the cloud and then downloaded to a computer, where it is analyzed.

SCR developed its first collar tags for cows in 1998, and began mass-marketing them in 2006. Since then, the company — with its 300 workers — said, the SCR Heatime H tags have become the best-selling heat detection solution worldwide, with systems sold to end-users throughout the world — from grazing operations in New Zealand, to mega-dairies on the West Coast of the United States.

Allflex, SCR’s new owner, is a global company with dozens of products for identification and monitoring of farm animals of all types. The firm, established over 50 years ago, has manufacturing and technology subsidiaries in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and China, with sales in over 80 countries.