Built by a rancher.
Because nothing else worked.
TerraOptics started in 2016, when Ron Spencer used a DJI drone to push a group of strays out of an inaccessible canyon and back to pasture. It worked. Really well. And it made one thing obvious: the future of cattle management was about to look very different.
New tools were emerging — drones, RFID tags, wi-fi controlled equipment and sensors. At the same time new regulations are being added every day — FSA records, interstate tracking, vaccination and doctoring records. But nothing could bring them together in a way that made sense on an actual working ranch. The data and record keeping kept piling up and the complexities kept getting more difficult.
"I needed one tool that could integrate new technology and consolidate all the data I needed to make good decisions."
— Ron Spencer, Founder
Our Trajectory
v0.0 — Drone Cattle Gathering and Tech Testing
Successful DJI Phantom trials for gathering and observing cattle. Started training cowboys to use flying cattle dogs as an extra tool in their arsenal. Early experiments in technology-assisted ranch operations and automations.
v1.0 — Autonomous Motor and Device Control
Built our first semi-autonomous climate management operating system across four greenhouses. Utilized Arduino and ESP32 sensors for temperature, humidity, and irrigation monitoring and controls. Proof of concept resulted in a 4× labor productivity improvement.
v2.0 — Remote Operations
Expanded our operating system to a solar-powered WiFi mesh across the ranch. Established a cloud-based data pipeline with a Raspberry Pi master controller and digital dashboard management system. Proof of concept successfully operated all four greenhouses autonomously while maintaining the 4× productivity increase.
v3.0 — Web + Mobile Application
Built and tested a fully operational ranch management platform now live at app.terraoptics.io. Incorporated satellite livestock monitoring with Ceres Tag integration. Track and organize GPS locations, behavioral data, and health alerts in real time on select cattle. Released our base dashboard for cattle organization and management.
v4.0 — Field Management & Team Coordination
Field management details and system schedules. Convert yearly events and protocols into calendars to coordinate across team members. Assign alerts and tasks to members so nothing gets missed and data is available to everyone.
Get Started Free
Ceres Tag
Direct-to-satellite livestock tracking needs purpose-built hardware that can operate anywhere cattle roam — off-grid, unattended, for years at a time. We integrate with Ceres Tag because they've solved that problem at the hardware layer.
Ceres Tag is an Australian hardware company whose smart ear tags were developed in collaboration with CSIRO — Australia's national science agency and one of the largest research organizations in the world. Their devices are the first fully-integrated, direct-to-satellite livestock monitoring tags on the market. No cell towers, no LoRa gateways, no base stations — the tag transmits straight to a low-earth-orbit satellite constellation.
Each tag is solar-harvesting with a multi-year operational life, and streams GPS coordinates alongside accelerometer-derived behavioral and health telemetry. The hardware is built for real working conditions: open range, mountain pasture, BLM allotments, and remote paddocks where no other tracker can reach.
TerraOptics pulls the raw tag feed from Ceres and transforms it into the maps, alerts, and records a working ranch actually uses day to day.
The Founder
Ron Spencer
Founder, BioSync Industries
Ron Spencer has spent his career at the intersection of emerging technology, design, and real-world operations. From custom FinTech tools to AI-powered digital twin platforms for enterprise agriculture, his work is grounded in a single conviction: technology should solve actual problems — not create new ones.
TerraOptics is a product of BioSync Industries, Ron's design and development company based in Umpqua, Oregon. Every tool BioSync builds is pressure-tested in real operations first. The philosophy is simple: design, build, and automate without losing the human or natural element. Technology should extend what people and the land are capable of — not replace them.