Fieldays goes urban
OPINION: Once upon a time the Fieldays were for real farmers, salt of the earth people who thrived on hard yakka.
Waikato Milking Systems is teaming up with Dutch dairy herd management technology maker Nedap to launch two new products.
Two of its new offerings - cow monitoring system, CowTraQ and TracHQ automation platform - will be powered by Nedap.
"Our technology and partnership with Nedap begins a new era in dairy management," says Jamie Mikkelson, WMS executive chairman.
"With the release of our smart CowTraQ collars, WMS now offers the most comprehensive and accurate solution to identify cows and monitor their reproduction, health, location and more.
"The innovative, reliable and integrated identification, automation and monitoring solutions provided by our CowTraQ system and our TracHQ platform lead the way in helping dairy farmers become more profitable, sustainable and productive," Mikkelson says.
Nedap livestock management managing director Bertino Verstege says its widely proven and integrated platform drives herd management technology such as CowTraQ and TracHQ to automate everyday tasks and deliver complete and user-friendly insights to dairy farmers to help make informed decisions.
"Advanced herd monitoring and management technologies have become vital tools for dairy farms throughout the world.
"That's because the technology is easily harnessed to maximise herd performance and farm efficiency," Verstege says.
Dairy farmers save time and labour, and use the information generated by the technology to improve farm management at the tactical and strategic levels.
WMS says its CowTraQ system and TracHQ platform, powered by Nedap, offer dairy farmers industry-leading advantages:
Transforming cow data into real-time and relevant alerts, to-do lists, reports and shed maps to help manage and control the herd.
"Waikato Milking Systems is excited to add these cow monitoring and herd management solutions to its broad portfolio of automation tools," says Mikkelson.
"They will strengthen dairy farm management and animal care, provide farmers the assurance that proper animal care occurs in a timely manner and expand dairy farmer access to cutting-edge technology and dairy management capabilities."
Verstege says Nedap is proud to add Waikato Milking Systems to its valued distributor network of leading international dairry industry companies.
"We are committed to our shared vision of long-term investments to enhance dairy farming and to provide farmers a profitable and sustainable future."
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.