Transforming beef farm performance and sustainability through our innovative hybrid tech solutions.
Herd Advance is a Scottish agri-technology company founded by beef farmers Jilly Duncan Grant and Murdoch Duncan.
Drawing on first-hand experience of managing cattle, we develop practical technology to reduce handling, improve labour efficiency and help farmers make better-informed decisions.
By bringing together robust farm hardware, automated identification, multi-sensor monitoring, analytics and remote drafting, we help farmers improve performance, animal welfare and labour efficiency.
DIGITISING YOUR HERD PROVIDES REDUCED COSTS AND INCREASED MARGINS THROUGH AUTOMATION AND HERD DATA ANALYTICS.
Our flagship technology, Stockman, combines robust farm hardware with real-time animal data and easy-to-use software.
It automatically identifies, weighs and monitors individual cattle when they visit water, providing valuable insight into growth, health and performance without routinely gathering the herd.
Stockman also enables farmers to remotely select and automatically draft animals requiring attention or ready for market.
Through the mobile-friendly Stockman portal, farmers have 24/7 access to individual animal and herd-level information from a smartphone, tablet or computer.
meet the founders
Jilly Duncan Grant
Co-Founder / CEO
Jilly is an alumna of the University of Aberdeen and SRUC and holds a master’s degree in Agri-Business Management. She brings more than 25 years of experience across agriculture, oil and gas, and offshore wind, with a career spanning business strategy, industry analysis and commercial development.
As Co-Founder and CEO of Herd Advance, Jilly leads the company’s vision, strategy and commercial growth, while overseeing business planning, finance and day-to-day operations. She also supports the future development of Scotland’s red meat sector as a Board Member of Quality Meat Scotland. In 2025, Jilly was named Innovator of the Year at the National Women in Agriculture Awards.
Murdoch Duncan
Co-Founder / COO
Murdoch has more than 25 years of experience studying and working in agriculture in the UK and overseas. Alongside his role at Herd Advance, he manages the family’s mixed beef and arable farm in Aberdeenshire, giving him first-hand experience of the operational challenges facing modern cattle producers.
As Co-Founder and COO, Murdoch leads Herd Advance’s on-farm product development and contributes practical engineering, fabrication and livestock-management expertise across the business. His ability to turn real farming challenges into robust, workable technology has been central to the development of Stockman.
our mission
"Our mission is to make cattle production more resilient, productive and sustainable through practical automation and better individual animal data. By reducing routine handling, improving labour efficiency and supporting earlier health and performance decisions, we help deliver better outcomes for farmers, cattle and the wider beef supply chain."