What SimHerd does

SimHerd A/S is a Danish private software company (founded 2010, headquartered at Agro Business Park in Tjele, Denmark) that provides bio-economic decision-support tools for dairy cattle farms. The company's flagship product, SimHerd Expert, is a stochastic, mechanistic simulation engine with 1,000+ parameters originally developed at Aarhus University's Department of Animal Science since 1992; it simulates every individual cow, heifer and calf in a herd on a weekly timestep over a 10-year horizon, integrating production, feeding, reproduction, health, replacement and economics using the farmer's own key figures. Around this core engine the company has built a product portfolio: SimHerd Flex (a B2B-embeddable algorithm/API delivered to partners such as Valio's farmer portal and MSD Animal Health's Rotavec Corona cost-benefit calculator), VetFlex (a veterinarian-targeted app with a 30-day free demo), SimHerd Crossbred (crossbreeding economics developed with Aarhus University, SEGES and VikingDanmark), SimHerd Dashboard (interactive Power BI dashboards), Klimaberegninger (methane/CO2e accounting), and a SimGoat/SimSheep extension for goat and sheep farmers co-financed by the EU EIP.

The company sells through multiple revenue streams: annual SimHerd Expert subscriptions tiered by user and herd count (single-user 13,750 kr/yr, Company 22,750 kr/yr, Company+ 35,700 kr/yr, plus a 22,950 kr/yr Veterinary Practice tier and a 1,200 kr/yr single-herd entry), one-time B2B Flex licensing (10,000-200,000 kr depending on tier), usage-based Data Enrichment at 1-2 kr per cow, professional services and bespoke analyses at 1,200 kr/hr, and an educational license (3,315 kr/yr). Its customer base spans veterinary practices, breeding and farm advisors (VikingDanmark, Växa Sverige, TINE Norway, Faba and Emovet Finland, HDS Support Netherlands, LVK Denmark), B2B agri-suppliers and dairy processors (Valio, MSD), education (Nordjyllands Landbrugsskole, Aarhus University), and direct farmer end-users (250-585 cow herds). Distribution combines a dedicated inside-sales motion, channel/reseller partnerships with Nordic cooperatives and vet groups, OEM/embedded integrations, a self-serve PLG flow (VetFlex freemium, online calculators), and a direct e-commerce storefront on simherd.com (Danish, English, German).

The ownership circle comprises VikingDanmark (majority shareholder since 2014), Aarhus University, founder/CEO Søren Østergaard and co-founder/consultant Jehan Ettema. The company employs approximately 7-10 staff (3 full-time and 4 part-time per a 2024 Børsen Gazelle article, plus 9-10 named contributors on its contact page including a 50%-shared employee with VikingDanmark), won the 2023 Børsen Gazelle award for at-least-doubled revenue over four consecutive years, and has expanded operations across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and Canada. Active product and geographic expansion continues through the 2025-2026 period, including the LVK Danish-vet partnership (Dec 2024), the Lactanet Canada collaboration (April 2025), the SimGoat/SimSheep launch (April 2025), and a redesigned UI 2.0 (May 2023) built with et. al. and Virkplan.

Name

SimHerd

Legal name

SimHerd A/S

Website

https://simherd.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

SimHerd A/S provides bio-economic simulation software for dairy cattle farms, using a 1,000+ parameter stochastic model originally developed at Aarhus University since 1992 to forecast herd management, breeding, health and climate decisions over 10-year horizons. It serves Nordic dairy farmers, veterinarians and breeding advisors via subscriptions, B2B API integrations and an educational license.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Dairy Farm Decision Support Software

NAICS

Animal Production and Aquaculture (112)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Herd Management Software & Identification (RFID, EID, Data Platforms) (AFAAAIAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Livestock Precision Monitoring Software (Herd/Flock Analytics, Health Alerts) (AFAAAFAM), Estrus Synchronization & Reproductive Management Services (Protocol Design, Heat Detection) (AFACAEAF)

Keywords

• Dairy herd simulation
• Decision support software
• Bio-economic modeling
• Cattle breeding analytics
• Livestock economics tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Viborg

HQ country

Denmark

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. SimHerd Expert annual subscriptions: Recurring annual licenses for the full SimHerd Expert model, tiered by user/herd count: Single user 13,750 kr/yr (10 herds), Company 22,750 kr/yr (50 herds, 5 hrs support, 10 users), Company+ 35,700 kr/yr (unlimited); plus Veterinary Practice 22,950 kr/yr and Practice+ tiers. Single-herd access 1,200 kr/yr + 590 kr SØA. Includes onboarding, support, automatic model updates with latest research.
2. SimHerd Flex B2B integration licensing: One-time license fees for embedding SimHerd Flex algorithms into a customer's app, dashboard or platform via API. Three pricing tracks: Cost Benefit 10,000-100,000 kr, Data Enrichment 1-2 kr per cow in database (unit/usage pricing), Advisory Tool 50,000-200,000 kr.
3. Data Enrichment per-cow unit pricing: SimHerd Flex algorithm delivered via API to enrich customer's existing data (e.g., forecasts, economics) with herd-specific calculations; charged 1-2 kr per cow in the database.
4. Professional services: bespoke analyses, training, support: Hourly consulting and bespoke analyses (1,200 kr/hr excl. moms), beginner courses (1,950 kr/participant), 30-minute SØA basic analyses (1,500 kr each), additional support (1,200 kr/hr), case herd creation (1,500 kr/herd), and on-site teaching (8-10 hrs at 1,200 kr/hr).
5. Educational/Teaching annual licenses: Annual teaching license 3,315 kr/yr (excl. moms) for agricultural schools and universities, providing unlimited student access to 7 standard herds and teaching materials.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion6 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

SimHerd develops and sells software that simulates every animal in a dairy herd on a weekly basis over a 10-year horizon to predict the economic and climate consequences of management, breeding and health changes. The platform combines a proprietary 1,000+ parameter bio-economic simulation model with embedded B2B algorithms (SimHerd Flex), veterinarian tools (VetFlex), crossbreeding analytics (SimHerd Crossbred), climate calculations, and Power BI dashboards, sold as subscriptions, licenses and usage-based API access.

Product overview

SimHerd offers a platform-plus-modules architecture for dairy herd decision support. The core engine is SimHerd Ekspert, a stochastic simulation model with 1,000+ parameters that simulates every animal in a herd week-by-week over a 10-year horizon and was developed at Aarhus Universitet since 1992. From this core engine the company has derived SimHerd Flex, a B2B algorithm that partners (e.g., Valio, MSD) embed in their apps, dashboards or existing platforms via API. Built on the Flex methodology, VetFlex is a veterinarian-focused health-economics app, and the consumer-facing Kvie-app and Klima beregner are specialized cost/climate calculators. Additional specialized modules include SimHerd Crossbred (crossbreeding strategy economics, developed with SEGES and VikingDanmark), SimHerd Dashboard (interactive Power BI dashboards), Klimaberegninger (climate-impact calculations including methane), and SimHerd Undervisning (educational version with teaching materials and case herds). Data flows in from Danish herd-data systems (DMS, Kvægdatabasen, CHR) and pricing is structured as subscriptions (Enkelt bruger 13,750 kr., Virksomhed 22,750 kr., Virksomhed+ 35,700 kr./year) and per-feature add-ons (e.g., SØA 590 kr., single-herd access 1,200 kr./year).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SimHerd Ekspert: The original decision-support model with more than 1,000 parameters that simulates every animal in the herd week-by-week over 10 years, originally developed at Aarhus University.
• SimHerd Flex

Products and services

• SimHerd Expert (SimHerd Ekspert)

Quantifiable outcome

• Better longevity + intensive use of sexed/beef semen reduces methane emissions by 5.3% per kg fat+protein in a 250-cow herd
• +9 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability5 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

20 partnerships are on record, tiered major strategic partner (international expansion), strategic co-development partner (product extension), co-development partner (product extension), major channel partner (denmark), channel partner (germany), major channel partner (norway), major channel partner (sweden), major channel partner (finland), major channel partner (netherlands), channel partner (finland), flagship b2b / oem partner, b2b / oem partner, channel partner (denmark), research co-author, data integration partner, ux/design implementation partner, software development partner, shared talent arrangement and historic commercialisation partner.

• Lactanet (Canada)major strategic partner (international expansion)Strategic or Co-development Partner · 25 April 20252-year collaboration (from 2025) with Canada's national dairy organisation to localise SimHerd for Canadian conditions, including the Canadian milk quota system. Project spans 60 Canadian farms, 14 fitted with methane 'sniffers' in robotic milkers. End-product: a SimHerd Flex-based advisory tool for all Canadian dairy advisors from 2026.
• Goat Improvement Company (GIT)strategic co-development partner (product extension)Strategic or Co-development Partner · 25 April 2025Partner in the SimGoat / SimSheep innovation project, which is extending the SimHerd model to goat and sheep herds. First farmers to trial the new tool during 2026.
• Nederlandse Schapen- en Geitenfokkers Organisatie (NSFO)co-development partner (product extension)Strategic or Co-development Partner · 25 April 2025Dutch federation of sheep and goat breeders, partnering in the SimGoat/SimSheep innovation project. Collaborates with Dutch farmers to pilot the new tool in 2026.
• LVK (Danish group of bovine veterinarians)major channel partner (denmark)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 16 December 2024From January 2025, LVK's bovine vets adopted SimHerd as a new tool in their advisory practice. Agreement signed in December 2024. Significantly expands SimHerd's reach into the Danish veterinary channel.
• Frank Achelpöhlerchannel partner (germany)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 December 2022Cooperation signed just before Christmas 2022 to introduce SimHerd to the German market. Frank is the local partner for sales and distribution in Germany.
• TINE (Norway)major channel partner (norway)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNorway's largest dairy and advisory house. 15 SimHerd-advisors use the tool across Norway, supporting 7,000+ Norwegian milk producers. TINE breeding advisors started using SimHerd in their advisory in 2023 after a customisation project for Norwegian conditions (including the Norwegian quota system).
• Växa Sverigemajor channel partner (sweden)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSweden's largest livestock association (6,000+ members) and a modern advisory firm. Växa's breeding advisors use SimHerd Expert to deliver qualified breeding-strategy optimisation to Swedish dairy and cattle producers.
• Faba (Finland)major channel partner (finland)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFinnish firm focused on cattle production, fertility and health. Faba's breeding advisors use SimHerd to find optimal breeding strategies; affiliated vets at Emovet (Faba's veterinary arm) use it for health advisory.
• HDS Support (Netherlands)major channel partner (netherlands)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLarge Dutch veterinary company that builds whole-farm action plans. Uses SimHerd Expert to perform economic analyses of cattle herds, focusing on the entire farm rather than single sub-areas.
• Emovet (Finland)channel partner (finland)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFaba's veterinary arm. Emovet vets use SimHerd to deliver health economic advisory to Finnish farmers.
• Valio (Finland)flagship b2b / oem partnerOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerFirst dairy to integrate a SimHerd Flex module into its farmer portal. SimHerd built a custom dashboard letting Valio's farmers see the economic and methane impact of management changes (udder health, hoof health, beef semen, reproduction, calf mortality). Quote from Valio veterinarian Kristiina Sarjokari: 'Vi forventer at landmændene vil bruge dette værktøj til at vurdere det økonomiske og klimamæssige potentiale af at forbedre deres egen besætnings management og sundhed.'
• MSD Animal Healthb2b / oem partnerOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerSimHerd built a custom cost-benefit calculator for MSD's Rotavec Corona vaccine, quantifying for farmers the value of using the vaccine on their specific herd.
• Kvægdyrlægerne Kronborgchannel partner (denmark)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDanish bovine veterinary practice that uses SimHerd's 'Hvad nu hvis...' framework in herd health advisory. Offers SØA reports to farmers.
• Dyrlæger & Kochannel partner (denmark)Channel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDanish veterinary group offering SundhedsØkonomiskeAnalyser (SØA) based on SimHerd to help farmers identify the biggest improvement areas in their herd.
• Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL)research co-authorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBavarian State Research Center for Agriculture. Co-authored the 2025 study with SimHerd on the economics of sensor-based disease monitoring (Pfrombeck et al. 2025, Journal of Dairy Science), which used SimHerd Expert to run 10,000 simulations per scenario.
• SEGES (Landbrug & Fødevarer)data integration partnerTechnology or IntegrationReceives updated herd data from SimHerd and shares personal data from the Kvægdatabasen under Art. 89.1 of GDPR. Co-developed SimHerd Crossbred with Aarhus University and VikingDanmark.
• et. al. (UX/design agency)ux/design implementation partnerImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerHelped SimHerd redesign the user experience and deliver the new look-and-feel of SimHerd UI 2.0.
• Virkplan (software development)software development partnerImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerCoded and built the new SimHerd UI 2.0, including integrations with the Kvægdatabasen.
• Nanna Bull (shared employee with VikingDanmark)shared talent arrangementOthersEmployed 50% by SimHerd and 50% by VikingDanmark - a unique arrangement that lets her serve simultaneously as breeding advisor (VikingDanmark) and SimHerd trainer/advisor. Primary focus: teaching, agricultural schools and advisory.
• Stratego and Dansk Kvæghistoric commercialisation partnerImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerWorked with SimHerd founders (Søren Østergaard and Jehan Ettema) during 2007-2009 to commercialise the research tool and develop a user-friendly web application.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Lely: Dutch global dairy robotics and farm management supplier. Comparable as an incumbent selling integrated robotic milking systems with software that increasingly covers health, reproduction and economics for dairy farms — competing for the same advisor/decision-support wallet.
• BouMatic: Global dairy milking and herd management equipment supplier with software offerings. Comparable as a broad incumbent bundling advisory and decision-support functionality into its equipment sales, addressing a similar customer base of large-herd dairy farmers and their advisors.
• GEA Group: German global dairy equipment and digital solutions supplier. Comparable as a broad incumbent serving large dairy operations and processors with integrated software/digital offerings, often used in conjunction with or instead of pure-software specialists like SimHerd.
• DairyMaster: Irish dairy equipment and software supplier with a strong farmer-and-advisor customer base. Comparable to SimHerd as a provider of integrated dairy management and decision-support tools for medium-to-large farms, particularly in Europe.
• DeLaval: Swedish multinational dairy farm solutions provider (milking, cooling, herd management). Comparable as a Nordic-headquartered incumbent selling integrated hardware+software to the same dairy farmer and advisor base; DelPro and related advisory modules overlap with SimHerd's Expert use cases.
• SCR (Allflex Livestock Intelligence / MSD Animal Health): Global livestock monitoring and identification business owned by MSD Animal Health. Comparable as a data-and-analytics layer for dairy that SimHerd is already integrated with via its MSD partnership, and competes for the same kind of farmer-facing economic-of-monitoring use case (e.g., sensor ROI analyses).

Direct peers

• Afimilk: Israeli-based global supplier of dairy herd management software and sensors. Directly comparable to SimHerd as a SaaS decision-support platform for dairy farmers and advisors, with overlapping use cases (milk production, health, reproduction) and overlapping customer profile (mid-to-large dairy operations and their advisors).

Emerging players

• Smaxtec: Austrian provider of dairy cow health and reproduction sensor systems with analytics. Comparable to SimHerd's health-economics and reproduction use cases; an emerging player that combines sensor hardware with analytics, increasingly overlapping with VetFlex/SØA on economic-impact reporting.
• Connecterra: Dutch AI/dairy platform that translates on-farm sensor data into actionable insights. Comparable as a software-led, data-driven dairy decision-support business targeting similar farmer and advisor use cases (health, reproduction, productivity) in the European market.

Regional players

• Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC): New Zealand dairy genetics and herd-improvement co-operative. Comparable as a regional incumbent with deep ties to dairy farmers and a portfolio that includes advisory and decision-support tools, providing a model for how Nordic co-ops (VikingDanmark, TINE, Växa, Faba) co-develop tools like SimHerd.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/simherd

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about SimHerd