Irish Minister Visits NZ Farm Showcasing Calf Tech

While many meetings during the visit focused on research collaboration between the two countries in areas including sustainable farming, emissions reduction and probiotics, a trip out to a farm was also on the agenda.

A visit to Mount Somers Station, a 10,000-acre property owned by David and Kate Acland in the Mid Canterbury foothills, saw an extensive operation that includes over 13,000 breeding sheep, 1800 beef cattle and 1300 dairy cows on the property, which also has 400 hives producing manuka and honeydew honey.

In order to support their 12 staff during spring calving season, the Aclands have introduced automatic calf feeders to their system. These are manufactured in Grealish’s homeland in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland by JFC Agri.

The Aclands introduced the ‘Evolution’ system in their three calving sheds last season, to automate the feeding of their spring calves and reduce labour requirements, as well as bringing further benefits, including improved health and growth of individual calves by ensuring milk is more evenly distributed amongst the mob. There are plans to build a fourth calving shed this year with another Evolution unit.

“The JFC calf feeders have revolutionised our calf rearing operation, they are simple and straightforward machines to operate and produce an excellent, even line of calves. The support and service network they have put in place is great”, says Kate Acland.

“I’m delighted to see the success of JFC Group here in New Zealand and to be able to see first-hand how their products are supporting farmers with their calf rearing,” says Grealish.

“We are delighted to be working with the Acland family, they run an impressive farming operation with modern day technology. We are seeing labour shortages on farms across the world, so our Evolution technology is helping to fill those gaps by saving time in calf rearing,” says John Concannon, managing director at JFC Group.

JFC Group is supported by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government’s trade and innovation agency, first introducing the product to the New Zealand market on the Ireland stand at National Fieldays in 2024.

“JFC’s Evolution automatic calf feeder is a great example of the types of technology being developed in both Ireland and New Zealand, which are supporting farmers on two opposite corners of the world, due to our similar farming systems and practices.” said Eoin Hughes, Enterprise Ireland’s market advisor for the agribusiness and sustainability.