Ready to go into business in two shakes of a lamb’s tail

Three second year students from Meath have come up with a way to protect sheep from predators and in the process have created a product that could be sold.

The three farmers' daughters, Emma McCabe, (14), Zoe Maguire, (13), and Edel Campbell, (14), may not have considered starting up a business when their project got underway. But they are certain they have a working system called Sheep Watch and have already raised €10,000 through crowd funding to help get their product up and running.

“We wanted to have a way to alert the farmer if the sheep were under attack,” explains Zoe, who with her project partners attend St Oliver Post Primary School.

The idea arose after just such an incident. "There was a major sheep kill in our area and we were chatting about it," Edel says.

They started looking into what a protection system might involve assuming an attack by the most common perpetrator, an uncontrolled dog.

Their design involves a tag worn by a sheep that can monitor movement using an accelerometer and also monitor heart rate.

The tag sends regular messages via radio signal to a monitor and if it detects increased heart rate and a rise in movement then the animal could be under attack.

The monitor in turn sends a signal to the farmer to warn of a problem. The monitor also trips an ultrasonic signal in the field, creating a high pitched sound not audible to humans but one that dogs can hear and also strongly dislike.

They tested their design and it all works with the only problem so far a too-short battery life with the tag worn by the sheep.

There has been great interest in their new product and the three believe they can supply a working system for well under €100 depending on the size of the flock.