GPS Ear Tags for Sheep & Cattle: A Livestock Tracking Buyer's Guide

Checking stock across open hill, common land or scattered fields eats hours — and when an animal strays, gets cast, or a gate's left open, those hours become a frantic search. A GPS ear tag changes that: a small, solar-topped tracker on the animal that puts the whole group on a live map on your phone, so "I think they're up top" becomes "they're here," and a loss becomes a location. Last updated: August 2026. What a GPS ear tag actually does At its simplest, a livestock GPS tag reports each animal's position on a schedule so you can see the group on a map, get an alert if something leaves a field (a geofence), and go straight to a stray or a cast ewe instead of quartering the ground. On theft, it's the one thing that turns a report into a recovery — a live location while the trailer's still moving. Browse the livestock GPS tracker range to see the form factors. Ear tag vs collar vs bolus Ear tags — light, low-profile, solar-assisted, and they sit where a management tag already goes. Ideal for sheep and for tracking a representative sample across a flock. Collars — bigger battery and antenna, so more frequent fixes and longer life; better for cattle and high-value individuals. Boluses — rumen devices for identification more than live GPS. For live location, tags and collars are what you want. You rarely need one on every animal — tracking a sensible sample across each field gives movement and geofence alerts for the whole group, with breeding or high-value stock tagged individually. 4G vs LoRa: the reporting-rate trade-off This is the choice that decides battery life and running cost. 4G tags report often and alert fast — sharpest for finding an animal or catching a theft in motion — but use more power and a data SIM. LoRaWAN tags sip power and report on a schedule (say every 10–60 minutes) for "where's the herd and is everyone accounted for," with much longer life and no per-tag SIM. We compare the two in depth in LoRa vs 4G GPS livestock trackers. What to look for before you buy Battery + solar sized for a British winter, not just summer — weak December sun punishes an under-specced tag. Coverage at your location — check the signal on the ground, not the optimistic postcode map; LoRa needs a gateway in range, 4G needs a network that reaches the field. A dashboard you'll actually use — live map, geofence alerts and a simple app beat a spreadsheet of coordinates. Fit and welfare — a tag that seats properly and doesn't snag. Get the right tags for your ground Tell us the stock, the ground (enclosed fields, open hill or common) and how often you need a fix, and we'll spec the tags, the reporting technology and any gateway you need — at trade pricing for farms and estates. Talk to our UK team. Free UK delivery over £75.