Pastoral Robotics

Pastoral Robotics is an Auckland, New Zealand agricultural technology company founded in 2013 by Geoffrey Bates. The company's mission is to reduce nutrient loss from pastoral farming systems — particularly nitrogen — while improving pasture productivity and protecting waterways from runoff.

The company's flagship product is Spikey, a tow-behind precision farming robot that operates in a 'follow-the-cows' routine on dairy farms. When cows move to a new paddock, Spikey follows behind, autonomously detecting fresh urine patches on the pasture using sensor technology and applying NitroStop, a nitrification inhibitor, directly onto those patches. This targeted treatment converts urea nitrogen into a stable form, preventing its conversion to nitrate, which can leach into waterways and cause algal blooms and contamination of drinking water sources.

In addition to urine-patch treatment, Spikey also performs targeted inter-urine-patch fertiliser application — applying liquid fertiliser only where cattle have not already deposited nutrients. This dual function increases nutrient use efficiency and reduces total fertiliser input for the farm. The system is designed to be compatible with standard farm routines and runs without requiring major changes to existing workflows.

Pastoral Robotics also markets NitroStop as a standalone nitrification inhibitor product for conventional broadacre application. The company operates at a small scale, with two employees as of 2026 and a small fleet of Spikey units commissioned in field operations across New Zealand dairy farms.

The company occupies a niche position in agricultural robotics by directly addressing one of the most difficult nitrogen management challenges in intensive pastoral systems — the random, high-concentration urine patch — which accounts for the majority of nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching on grazed pastures. Pastoral Robotics is headquartered at 40 Kenwyn Street, Parnell, Auckland 1052, New Zealand.