FARGO — From its headquarters on 700 Main Avenue in downtown Fargo, engineers with 701x Autonomous Rancher are improving the lives of ranchers like Sara Stevenson at Down T Angus Ranch near White Sulphur Springs, Montana.
Since launching in 2020, 701x engineers have developed herd management software as well as GPS tags that offer location tracking, health monitoring, estrus/heat indicators, bull mounting activity, and more.
And with its
acquisition of Digital Beef
in late 2024, it also now offers a registry app for seedstock producers.
Sam Fisher, vice president of sales and marketing, said their strategy is similar to that of Apple.
“Think about what Apple has done with the cell phone, Apple watch, air tags and ear buds. They provided all of that under one roof for one seamless experience,” he said. “That is really our vision now is to have tools for producers to more efficiently manage their operation.”
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Stevenson said other firms offer individual programs and products for the cattle industry, but she’s unaware of another firm that “does everything at once.”
“It (701x) has saved me hours of data entry and bookkeeping and changed my life for the better,” Stevenson said.
Kevin Biffert, founder of 701x, grew up on a ranch near Killdeer, N.D., the middle of 15 children.
After high school, Biffert moved to Fargo and earned degrees in mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering. He worked for 3M for a few years before leaving to start his own company, Fargo Automation, in 1996.
Fargo Automation specialized in manufacturing packaging equipment for medical devices and pharmaceutical companies. Biffert sold the company to German-based Körber Solutions in 2017.
He then returned to the family ranch and quickly realized that while advancements had been made to autonomous farming practices in recent years, the autonomous ranching industry was largely ignored.
He started to do market research and really leaned into his automation/engineering mindset, Fisher said.
He first focused on the cow/calf side of the market.
“As the name insinuates, the goal of those operations is to get cows bred and producing a calf every year,” Fisher said.
The only way a rancher makes money is if a cow produces a calf that can be sold for consumption or for its genetic value to a seedstock operation, he added.
Software engineers at 701x began by building a herd management app that allows ranchers to collect and record data in the field.
“This has eliminated hours, and I mean hours, of bookkeeping for me just by being able to enter this chute-side in my phone,” Stevenson said.
Previously she’d have to record which cows were open (not bred) or required medication in a notebook. She’d then have to enter that information into another program and print out a report that would help them sort the cattle the following day.
“Now I can sort them directly out of the chute” and we’re able to finish up in one day, she said.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Engineers also designed and manufactured smart ear tags. When applied to a bull, the xTpro will monitor its mounting activity as well as its overall health, sending the rancher alerts often days before medical symptoms appear. The device also allows ranchers to monitor a bull’s location and get alerts if the animal leaves its assigned virtual fence.
That’s helped Stevenson’s father, who runs multiple herds and bulls in the Montana mountains.
She said she also appreciates the tag’s ability to track a bull’s viability or libido.
“They’ve put an accelerometer in these tags and we can actually track how many steps and how many mounts per bull and correlate that back to how many calves they actually produce. It’s a multi-year study, but the data coming back is proving to be quiet accurate. … Now we can get a pretty accurate measure of our own herd and how our own bulls are doing, which will lend to the predictability of their progeny,” she said.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
When applied to a cow, in addition to GPS tracking and health alerts, the xTpro will send the rancher a push notification when a cow is in heat.
“Now instead of watching your whole herd around the clock looking for which females are showing signs of estrus or heat, that tag will send a push notification to your phone: ‘Animal 127 will be in heat in the next 24 hours or so.’ So, out of your herd of 500, you might have a smaller list of just 20 animals you need to watch now and breed in the next 24 hours,” Fisher said.
The company also sells a tag for calves called the xTlite that’s meant to do three things:
- Track animal activity and send the rancher health updates
- Offer a quick and easy digital headcount
- Offer relative GPS location
There is hardware included in the xTpro that allows it to communicate via the cell network and soon via satellite. While the xTlite tag does not have its own ability to communicate through those networks, it is Bluetooth-enabled and can send data through a nearby pro tag.
“The mama’s tag will be looking for her calf. If it sees that Bluetooth signal, it knows the calf is nearby and assigns that relative GPS location. It’s monitoring its footsteps. If there’s a deviation, we know that calf is getting sick and a message will be sent (to the rancher) through the mom,” Fisher said.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
All of 701x’s products are designed, developed and manufactured at its headquarters in downtown Fargo.
“All engineers are in-house here. … It’s allowed us to be very nimble,” Fisher said. “It started off with the GPS tag and the vision now is we want the whole ecosystem under one roof for producers.”
While Stevenson initially hoped 701x programs would work with products she already had at the ranch, she now appreciates that she can go to 701x for all her needs.
“I think there are a number of programs doing bits and pieces of what 701x is doing and there’s another web-based program out there that’s close, but it doesn’t have the tag tracking feature and it doesn’t have a handheld feature. And that is kind of the game-changer in the fact that everybody on the ranch can have the same information almost instantly,” Stevenson said. “It sounds like I’m making this grandiose statement, but what I mean is it does all the things I need it to do better than any of them individually, in my opinion,” she said.
The company’s territory is currently the contiguous 48 states, but this spring they will be releasing a satellite version of the xTpro which should work anywhere.
It “should work in every country, but there are certain certifications or authorizations you might need to obtain,” he said.
To learn more about 701x and its products, visit
www.701x.com/software.
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