2005

Dr. Pat Zimmerman spent decades as an internationally respected atmospheric chemist, studying methane emissions across the Amazon, Africa, Asia, and North America. His research helped shape the global understanding of greenhouse gases.

But one truth kept emerging from the field: progress in livestock emissions science was held back by a lack of accurate, traceable, animal-level data. The tools simply didn't exist yet.

2010

Working out of a garage, the four founders shared a clear mission: deliver the most accurate animal emissions data in the world to researchers, producers, and corporations so they could make better decisions about climate impact, operational efficiency, and profitability. They believed that improving productivity and mitigating greenhouse gases were not competing goals—but complementary ones.

That belief led to the development of the first GreenFeed® system.

The original GreenFeed unit revolutionized livestock emissions measurement by enabling direct, animal-level quantification of methane, CO₂, and hydrogen. What began as a bold experiment quickly became the global standard for research-grade ruminant emissions monitoring. It propelled C-Lock from a small startup into a company at the center of climate-smart agriculture.

But hardware was only part of the innovation.

From the beginning, C-Lock understood that precision measurement requires more than sensors, it requires intelligent data systems. Mike Billars and Scott Zimmerman built and continue to oversee C-Lock’s advanced data and analytics platform, transforming raw instrument signals into clean, calibrated, validated datasets and customer-facing reports trusted by researchers worldwide. 

The platform automatically detects valid animal visits, corrects for environmental variables, ensures full traceability, and manages one of the largest archives of cattle emissions data in existence.

The C-Lock of Today