When Graham and Jane Thomas converted an Ashburton farm to dairy five years ago, they went with Tru-Test MilkHub dairy automation. “Our farm adviser said anything that would help with mastitis detection was worth trying,” recalls Graham. “We were launching into something new, so it seemed a good idea.”
And last year when they converted a second farm, 239ha ‘Grajan’ milking 955 cows, they again bought MilkHub for the 60-bail rotary shed.
Grajan manager Richard Pearse had no previous experience of working with automation in a shed, “except for a teat sprayer.” Now the MilkHub is said to be helping him keep excellent control of somatic cell levels, and making animal management tasks more efficient.
The low somatic cell count speaks for itself, says Pearse who with his partner Susan Geddes recently won the Dairy Farm Manager of the Year, and a Vet Life award for the second lowest cell count in the South Island. “We were over the moon about that. The best I’ve had before that was 120,000.”
Information collected by the MilkHub in-line sensor system each milking identifies a group of cows to watch closely. “We can set an alert for those cows, which comes up on the screen at cups on, so they get stripped out every milking.” The targeting makes their job more efficient, Pearse says, and it helps with early mastitis detection so they treat more quickly.
The MilkHub feed control system enables them to control feeding of grain, to feed to a cow’s production or condition, and ensure no cow is overfed. The keypad helps set up automatic drafting for any purpose “nice and easily”.
When it came to the end of the season, Pearse found the MiHub online herd management tool helps manage moving the cows to once-a-day milking and then drying off. “It provides good information.”
For the coming season they’ve added a screen at cups off, so treatments can be recorded as they’re done, and drafting – for example for mating – can be guided by Minda records.
“The information is all right there, in real time.”
