A new GPS tracking device which could significantly cut the cost of rural crime is to be launched at this week’s LAMMA Show.

The Agri-Track Sentry has been designed to protect valuable agricultural equipment by notifying its owner whenever the equipment is used at an unspecified time or taken outside a precise, specially selected area.

Armed with a hi-tech battery which lasts at least three years, the device can be attached to any equipment or machinery, without needing access to another power supply, and can therefore be securely hidden from plain sight.

If the equipment is then either moved at a time when its owner has decided it should be out of use, or if it is taken outside a specific area, such as the owner’s farm, the Agri-Track Sentry will ‘wake up’ and instantly alert the owner by mobile phone or email, notify a 24/7 alert centre and track the location of the equipment so that it can be recovered quickly and easily.

David Donnachie, the director of Agri-Track who helped design the new device, said: “Rural crime currently costs around £42 million a year and yet precious little is done to really tackle it.

“Because of the nature of agriculture, expensive machinery or equipment often has to be left unattended in isolated areas, making them difficult to monitor and incredibly easy to steal. The Agri-Track Sentry can now offer a cost effective and easy-to-use solution to that problem.”

In many cases, stolen machinery can be dismantled and shipped abroad even before the alarm is raised, leaving its owner with no chance of recovery and facing the huge costs both of replacing it and of operating without it in the meantime.

Agri-Track Sentry tackles both problems by raising the alarm as soon as the equipment is moved off the farm, then uses GPS to track the equipment wherever it is taken, anywhere in the world.

Mr Donnachie added: “We have taken a lot of time speaking to people within the industry, and even working on farms, to make sure the Sentry really does what farmers need it to do.

“As a result, we’ve worked really hard to make sure it is simple and easy to set up and use, requires no maintenance once in place, is flexible in terms of how it can be used, and can be relied upon to work when it is needed.”

Agri-Track Sentry is being launched this week at the LAMMA show in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and will be on demonstration at Stand B77.

The device retails at an RRP of £495, which includes the first year’s subscription to the GPS service and access to the easy-to-use web interface for customising the device’s alert settings and tracking it in the event that it is ever stolen.

The device can also be set up by text message, or by using web-enabled smartphones.

For more information, visit www.agri-track.co.uk or call 0845 467 7128.