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Halter brings an immediate solution to labour challenges
The ability of Halter’s smart cow collars to couple activity monitoring with cow guidance is world-leading.
Halter enables cows to be held within a virtual fence.
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world-first technology that enables dairy farmers to move their herds remotely at the touch of their smartphone is reducing labour challenges and empowering teams to make impactful decisions on farms. As Halter removes the need for staff to move stock or shift fences, three to six hours a day of staff time can be freed up, depending on the size of the farm. Within weeks of rolling out Halter in Canterbury, the New Zealand business already has farms in the region set up and ready to use the solarpowered, GPS-enabled smart collars for cows. “One of the biggest changes that happen as soon as you implement Halter on a farm is that the workload significantly decreases. All the manual moving and shifting of cows to the cowshed and to new pasture can be done in a couple of seconds on your smartphone via the Halter app,” said Halter’s head of business development Steve Crowhurst. While rumination cow collars are becoming more widely used, Halter’s ability to couple activity monitoring with cow guidance is world-leading and offers a complete system for farmers. Strong demand from Canterbury for the technology meant it was the logical next move after years of operating on their pilot farm in Morrinsville and gaining widespread adoption from Waikato farmers after their initial launch in the region, Crowhurst said. “If you look at Canterbury farms, they have a lot on their plates and have a lot of regulation coming in. “They are under quite a bit of strain in terms of labour shortages, with many going into the calving and mating season with one or two staff down.” Halter is probably the biggest
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PHOTOS: SUPPLIED
“Staff really enjoy being part of a farming operation with world-first technology.”
opportunity the industry has to provide relief in terms of labour shortages, Crowhurst said. “We have a 600-cow farm in Waikato and during calving, when traditionally staff went on farm at 4am, they now head across to the cowshed at 6am. So, they are saving two hours off the morning routine.” A Canterbury farmer had calculated that up to six hours a day could be saved by no longer having to move cows to the cowshed. “Farmers can easily save three to six hours previously spent getting cows to the shed on bigger farms.” In addition, it is no longer necessary to spend time setting up temporary fencing and feed breaks as cows are instead held within a virtual fence. Staff are now able to re-allocate their time away from repetitive tasks and instead be empowered to focus on more valuable tasks and highquality decision making. “You can manage pasture and allocate feed at a very precise level. “Nationally, 173 cows are managed per full-time equivalent (FTE). In Waikato, some farmers using Halter are managing up to 300 cows per FTE without compromising staff or animal wellbeing. In Canterbury, with its bigger farms and more dairy shed automation, it could be even higher.” From the farm owner or operations manager to the herd and farm assistant, all staff are able to have full visibility using the app. “So everybody is on
Halter’s head of business development Steve Crowhurst; the technology brings immediate reductions in workload.
the same page and everyone has buy-in to the whole operation.” This made for an attractive workplace. “Staff really enjoy being part of a farming operation with world-first technology. It is exciting and it reinvigorates everybody. Even farmers that have been in dairying for a long time have a big shift in enthusiasm for farming with Halter in their hands,” Crowhurst said. Powered by a set of patented algorithms the business calls “cowgorithm”, the technology tracks the health and behaviour of every cow in a herd via their collar and gives an early indication of when an animal is in heat, or sick. Halter is also completing its lameness detection system, set to be released to farmers in the near future. Craig Durbin, who manages four dairy farms and about 10 staff on behalf of the farm management company FarmRight for NZ Super Fund, said Halter had been introduced on one of the farms in September, with another to get the technology in January. Despite only having Halter on-farm for a few months, its impact is huge.
All the manual shifting of cows to the cowshed and to new pasture can be done in seconds on a smartphone via the Halter app.
“Staff don’t have to follow cows to the cowshed and it reduces time on a motorbike, which is a big health and safety factor on a farm,” Durbin said. NZ Super Fund have a focus on zero harm on farm as well as innovation and reducing work hours and health and safety risk for staff is a key priority. As the farm with Halter has two herds, a minimum of 30 minutes a day was previously spent moving each herd to the shed. Under twice-a-day milking, this equated to a saving of two hours a day. Another two hours a day is being saved not having to put up temporary fences. “The farm has quite big paddocks and is hilly and we were previously always putting up fence reels. “So, we are saving up to four hours a day.” While a key focus is to give staff a better quality of life, the reduction in workload reduces labour stress on farms that are typically struggling to find workers. The farm had lost half a labour unit during mating and normally it would have been very difficult to run the farm with the staffing levels it had, at that time, Durbin said. The Halter technology is easy to learn and use. The
manager on the farm was not computer literate or tech-savvy, “but he’s got full use of it now and he’s away”. “It’s unlimited. Halter are always doing upgrades, so there are new features coming on board. We are giving them ideas as well,” Durbin said. Pasture management has also improved. “Rather than putting the fence in the easiest place, with Halter you can put the cows where you want to graze the grass harder.” Halter collars are leased under a per cow subscription model – based on the features farmers want to be enabled. Halter retains ownership of the collars and takes responsibility for their maintenance and upgrading of software, Crowhurst said. “As the technology is highly adaptable, we have the amazing chance to work alongside farmers and build a system that is extremely relevant for their farm system.” Since being founded in 2016, Halter has rapidly grown to a workforce of 130 people, mainly based in Auckland, with more than 30 people at the pilot farm at Morrisville. A team has also been established in Canterbury to service the rollout in the region.