By Nikita B. Damsgaard
Tony and Louise Spence have been dairy farming for 28 years gathering many years of experience. They purchased their dairy farm in Te Pahu 5 years ago securing a sharemilking position the following year on the neighbouring farm. Since purchasing their farm, they have had to work extra hard managing both their farms, with an additional 510 cows, along with a 150-hectare lease block for all their young stock.
Getting cows in calf is one of the most important and seemingly stressful part of owning a herd explained Tony. Fortunately, with a strong team of long-term staff, both Tony and Louise have seen fantastic results in the past.
However, in recent years, they have experienced a reduction in their mating results. Possibly similar results to many across the industry. With reproductive results underpinning a dairy farmer’s profitability, the Spences decided to take action, focusing on their cows, their team, and their workflow.
Seeking support and guidance from their vet, Marther from Vetora Te Awamutu, the Spences decided to focus on their herd’s transition period and giving their team the latest technology for heat detection.
To ensure accuracy, the Spences decided to look at both an automatic drafting gate and a cow monitoring system. This way the additional administrative tasks in the shed become stress-free for their team and they can keep an eye on every cow in their herd 24/7.
They were unsure of how to approach the whole situation, so they contacted one of their friends in the area, who is savvy in terms of technology and does not splash out on fancy devices without doing the proper research first. Tony’s friend uses Easy Dairy and CowManager and he showed and told the Spences about the abilities and features of the systems.
The Spences decided to go with the same solution and not long after they signed a contract with Senztag. Four weeks after they signed, the payout per milk solids dropped to $7.24, and the Spences feared they had made a financial mistake and doomed themselves. They rang Nick from Senztag Automation the next day and explained their situation. Nick found a different payment method for the Spences and ensured that they could still go ahead with their gate and monitoring installation. Tony was very amazed and thankful for the way they had been helped and that there was an understanding from Senztag’s side that the payout varies from time to time.
Originating from a dairy farming background the Senztag team have all dealt with the ebbs and flows of the milk cheque payout and strives to work alongside farmers to manage these challenges together believing it to be a wider industry challenge.
With financial troubles settled and their sight’s locked on improving their fertility results, the Spences asked the question every farmer has when making a major purchase “how quickly can you have it installed and running?”.
“The gate was delivered to the farm on Monday, installed on Wednesday by the local engineer and drafting cows on Thursday morning at cups on” says Nick van Baar. The truly beautiful thing about the Easy Draft gate is in its name, it is Easy.
Constructed prior to delivery the Easy Dairy drafting gate has minimal moving parts and next to no bolts. The Easy Dairy drafting gate is designed to be quieter and doesn’t make any sudden moves to minimise spooking the cows. It has reduced vibrations to minimise wear and tear. The gate is built from high-quality steel with no T joints, to ensure a robust gate. To operate the gate, you have a touchscreen interface with multiple integration options.
Integrating with a wide variety of monitoring systems, farmers can easily integrate systems such as CowManager and enjoy incredibly easy software.
Their farm manager expresses how the CowManager and Easy Dairy system has made his life on farm easy and stress-free. The system runs by itself, he only water blasts the gate daily and then it runs without him having to do anything; “You can just go home happy” he says. The most important thing with the Easy Dairy gate is getting it set up right from the beginning, which is done by professionals.
There are many advantages to having an automatic drafting system. When working with both CowManager and Easy Dairy you are ensured that the drafting is right, and you can easily pull data from the systems. Louise is the one who manages the software side of things. It has never been easier for her to get data on specific cows if needed, and they know the data is accurate.
The mating season went smoothly for the Spences. With CowManager detecting when cows were on heat, and the Easy Dairy gate drafting them automatically, ensured that the right cows got mated at the right time.
“Giving both our herd and staff everything they need to perform is just the beginning of the work we have ahead of us to get the herd’s reproduction up to a level we are happy with. We are proud to have quality partners working with us to help us achieve our goals on farm. We always try to be better” says Tony.
