Deer farmer targets poor performers, saves money
Management practices that aim to cull the poor performers rather than boost the best are a key to success for Canterbury deer farmer Stu Stokes.
With a suite of other smart technology products to follow close on their collars, Datamars Livestock claims it is leading the way to help farmers work smarter.
Barry Flynn milks a 620-strong Friesian herd on 195ha. The farm manager, originally from County Cavan in Ireland, is slowly building up numbers on the Cavendish Partnership farm – an ex-forestry block just outside Mt Somers.
“We are building up the soil profile and the cows are producing lots of milk. The first year we hit our breeding target. But last year, didn’t go our way,” he explains.
“This year, we wanted to explore how we could improve our breeding. One key strategy for doing that was collars.”
After looking at his options, Flynn ran with Tru-Test Automated Heat Monitoring with Active Collars from Datamars Livestock.
“From an Irish point of view, I am very aware of wearables,” he adds. “Many farms back home are using collars and the research behind this is extremely good.” Flynn says the way he and farm owner Rob Turney thought about it was, ‘there was no point in fighting technology’.
“We might as well be innovative and understand it as early as we can to gain that couple of percent which is key.”
He says the collars have been a great success.
“Our return rate at that first 21 days was extremely good.
“We have seen a very steady fall off in those numbers of cows coming back on heat, which is a very good sign.
“We can see from the data that we are inseminating them at the right time, not too early or late, and the cows are holding on to the pregnancy.”
Flynn adds they have also found that the collar data has been a real help for younger animals.
“One weakness of the industry is that cows fall out of the system far too early and we are not getting our cows back in calf as early as we should.”
He says the data from the collars is giving the herd every bit of health advantage.
“We are asking a cow to calve down in August and demanding her to get back in calf by the first week in November. It is not giving the animal that much time to heal and recover.
“With these collars, we are doing our best to ensure as few cows are falling out of the system as possible. Going forward that’s our goal – sustainability.”
All the cow behaviour data, as well as heat and health insights, are integrated through the Datamars Data Livestock Cloud Software. Flynn sees all this via the phone app.
Flynn says another benefit with collars is how they help free-up staff.
“It’s a massive thing for us. This year has been hard, but we haven’t required someone on the vet stand. With collars, you are saving a unit because you don’t need a second person in the shed.
“That makes a huge difference. I am saving two hours of every day.”
Head of Datamars Livestock Smart Farming for Australasia Verne Atmore is pleased with the results farmers have seen with their Active Collar Tag. But he is quick to point out it’s just the start.
“We’re excited to now have our new automated Walk Over Weighing systems for sale in Australia. The solutions include the Flexi Mobile 4000C for in-paddock automated weighing and the Dairy WOW 4000C for in-shed daily herd weighing.”
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