Open Country opens butter plant
When American retail giant Cosco came to audit Open Country Dairy’s new butter plant at the Waharoa site and give the green light to supply their American stores, they allowed themselves a week for the exercise.
With the launch of its first wireless farm monitoring camera FMC-IP1, dairy automation company DeLaval now offers farmers the possibility of true real-time monitoring over their livestock and buildings from smartphones, tablets or computers.
By giving farmers the freedom to monitor without being on-site, activities such as calving can be monitored more efficiently, and alarms can be checked visually.
DeLaval product manager farm supply Eva Ramvall says in an industry where cow comfort and welfare are vital to productivity, the ability to efficiently monitor the herd, from wherever the farmer happens to be, is important in maintaining a well-functioning operation.
The Farm Monitoring Camera system has been specifically designed for ease of installation and to withstand the dirt and humidity of barns as well as outdoor weather conditions. It also provides a night vision function and sound, in addition to motion detection and a recording function. This makes it ideal for a wide range of monitoring tasks, from animal and property monitoring to checking grain driers during harvesting.
The camera will be made available during the coming twelve months in all its main markets, says DeLaval.
The sale of Fonterra’s global consumer and related businesses is expected to be completed within two months.
Fonterra is boosting its butter production capacity to meet growing demand.
For the most part, dairy farmers in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti and the Manawatu appear to have not been too badly affected by recent storms across the upper North Island.
South Island dairy production is up on last year despite an unusually wet, dull and stormy summer, says DairyNZ lower South Island regional manager Jared Stockman.
Following a side-by-side rolling into a gully, Safer Farms has issued a new Safety Alert.
Coming in at a year-end total at 3088 units, a rise of around 10% over the 2806 total for 2024, the signs are that the New Zealand farm machinery industry is turning the corner after a difficult couple of years.