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Dairy Focus
www.guardianonline.co.nz
TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
Halter automations transform farm C
anterbury farmers are expected to take a worldleading technology which automates herd movements to a new level when it is rolled out in the region from November. The smart cow collars called Halter enable farmers to shift, manage and monitor their herds remotely using an app on a mobile phone. Dairy farmer Pete Morgan, whose farm has been transformed by Halter after only a year of commercial use, said he had talked to several farmers in Canterbury interested in adopting the technology. While the initial farmers to use Halter had progressed the technology, this was nothing compared to what Canterbury farmers will do with it in terms of size, scale and focus, Morgan said. When people visit his farm and see Halter in action “it quickly stops being about the technology and being about what it can unlock”. Pete Morgan and his wife Ann milk two adjacent 300-cow herds at Pokuru and have been involved with Halter since its trial stages three years ago. “We recognised very early that rather than being a single answer for a single problem, the technology had the capability to positively influence all aspects of our farm business. This includes assisting with labour issues and the tracking and monitoring of cows, particularly their health and reproduction.” He particularly liked the way Halter allowed him to have an “infinitely flexible” grazing system, with cows no longer limited by fences. Instead, cows are guided by the solarpowered, GPS-enabled Halter smart collars to stay within the bounds of virtual fences until being given the signal to move. This enabled the farm to have multiple herds and grazing shifts without extra workload. Powered by a set of patented
Dairy farmer Pete Morgan says Halter allows him to have an “infinitely flexible” grazing system, with cows shifted via an app on his mobile phone and no longer limited by fences. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
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 their lameness detection system, set to be released to farmers in the near future. While smart rumination cow collars are becoming more widely used, the added applications of guiding the cows around a farm using sounds and vibrations and creating virtual fencing are world-leading. “To push a button and have the cows seamlessly move there in their own time. The novelty of that never wears off,” Morgan said.
The cows had become very quiet using the new system. “Everything is done at their pace. We never have to push them anywhere.” With staff no longer required to bring the cows in for milking, shift them to fresh pasture or move electric fences, each of the Morgans’ two farms were saving an average of four hours a day in labour. This meant staff hours could be kept to 45 hours a week, making it easier to recruit and retain staff. The Morgans now start milking at 6am, rather than 4.30am previously. “I have full visibility over both farms, where the animals are and the planning. The staff – all in their twenties – also have all the information on their phones and are able to be part
of the decision-making process. “It is the more routine and mundane operational work that you can drop. At the same time, you can encourage staff to step up to make good quality management decisions using the technology. “It is beautifully simple. Once you know the pasture cover in a paddock and the residual you can literally draw a break that is any shape that you want. As you draw it, it will tell you how many kilograms of drymatter a cow. “So, we spend all our time fine-tuning the cows’ intakes and are not limited by paddock size.” Much of the animal movements and break sizes are programmed in the day before, with animals left to move on their own.
To further maximise the technology, the Morgans have removed some of their fences to create areas that are more optimal for grazing. Paddock sizes are now five hectares compared with 1.8ha previously. “We observe the animals a lot. We reinvest some of the time we have saved making really smart management decisions, rather than running around with an electric fence.” Rather than being constrained to a limited number of herds because of staffing and workload, large-scale Canterbury farms could be split into as many herds as they liked based on different feeding, calving dates and condition score, he said. Morgan now had up to six herds when in spring he would normally have two. Environmentally, the cows could be easily managed to reduce pugging and nutrient impacts. As the Morgans have two rivers and wetlands bordering their farm, contingency plans have been put in place for weather events such as heavy rain. “We also now have evidence for compliance of every decision that we have made in terms of the environment and animal health.” In terms of mating, Halter tracked every heat that cows had since calving. “It is not only when they cycled, but how strong the cycles are. So, we start mating with a really good understanding of the herd’s reproductive health.” This meant even less experienced staff can easily identify cows on heat and draft them out. “It makes what can be a stressful mating season a lot more routine.” 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.
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