Herd about the 110% milk solids/liveweight goal?
Methven farmers Earl and Melissa McSweeney are breeders of one of LIC’s best KiwiCross sires, 523092 Plateau Dembe, son of popular 21-code bull Baldricks Spectacular.
Helping farmers raise productivity and prosperity will be the focus of LIC’s two sites.
In addition to its main site the co-op will have another for its newly formed subsidiary business LIC Automation.
Chief executive Wayne McNee says both will focus on farm improvement, the LIC Automation site displaying automation and sensor technology systems from Protrack and DAL.
The co-op will show everything it has to offer “that can help
our farmers improve their prosperity and productivity,” McNee says.
“And it will celebrate some of the industry’s success, and how much improvement our shareholders have achieved.
“The rapid growth of the dairy industry for 100 years is a great success story. Farmers have… made the most of new technologies from LIC that help them farm more efficiently. We think Fieldays is a great opportunity to recognise that.”
LIC will have knowledgeable staff on both sites, ready to discuss the co-op’s services and solutions, and talk about the challenges they are currently facing.
“These conversations give us the insights to understand what our farmers need from us, so we can develop and deliver the right solutions,” McNee says.
New gear on display will include an automated heat detection system for herringbone dairy sheds and a new smartphone app to record and review health treatments, plus tentative bull teams for the 2015-16 season, online tools to improve herd reproduction and developments in short gestation genetics.