Keeping sheep under shade, shelter as climate changes
How much shade and shelter do our sheep need in an era of more extreme weather and the lack of natural shelter on farms?
While the days are usually long and arduous, this time of year is far less stressful for Matamata farmer Tony Hollinshead.
Since collaring his 350 cows in 2022 with AfiCollar cow monitoring technology, he says his time in the shed and labour costs have decreased significantly.
"The system makes mating so simple," says Hollinshead. "If a cow is in heat, she's drafted automatically, and I don't have to spend hours in the morning trying to figure out which cows to inseminate. It's saved me a lot of time and guesswork, and there's no need to use tail paint anymore.
"The collar is like my on-farm 2IC, and I don't have arguments about what channel the radio needs to be on in the shed!"
But most importantly Hollinshead says his herd is happy and healthy and he is confident knowing that he has the data every day to prove it.
John Stubbs, general manager Afimilk New Zealand and Australia, says his team have been working closel with their three national distributors Headlands, Ace Electrical and Reads Industrial to help alleviate some of those pain points for farmers at this time of year.
"Afimilk is getting a lot of positive feedback from farmers using our collars up and down the country. It's been a great season for our clients, seeing the benefits of Afimilk collars to their businesses daily."
The company says the technology is a game-changer providing insights about anoestrus cows, fertility windows, potential health issues and other vital information straight to the farmer.
"For farmers to have this info at their fingertips and the proactive backup of our team at the end of the phone sets us apart from our competitors," says Stubbs.
"In today's market, there are plenty of collars and software options to choose from. However, our team differentiates itself by offering proactive personalised support and fully customisable reporting whenever it is required. We take pride in our commitment to being there for our customers."
The collars can be used independentl or as part of the Afimilk integrated management farm system, including automated feeding, drafting gates, milk meters and AfiLabs milk component analysers.
In addition to local support provided by Stubbs and his team, farmers are also connected to a g;obal network pursuing the latest technology and innovation. This network oversees the monitoring of over 10 million cows daily via Afimilk software.
