Dairy farmers continue to face staffing challenges and growing governance responsibilities out on farm. New technology and emerging innovation continuously surface with the promise to reduce workload and empower farmers to do more and be better.
Where should dairy farmers first look to invest their valuable time and hard-earned cash, and what can you actually get out of automation on farm?
Nestled in the hills of Piopio is Varneys Eden, a 300-cow farm run by Max Varney and his wife, Kayla. Having milked cows for over 21 years, Varney's initial opinion towards automation was that it would take the farming out of farming and lead to a reduction or loss of skills on farms.
For Varney, staffing has been a challenge, and at their farm scale, they reached a crossroads. They could either continue trying to hire staff or automate the more repetitive tasks. The Varneys choose to aim for a 1.5-man shed, or an owner-operator system, as that is the lifestyle they are looking for.
Dairy automation has been rapidly growing in New Zealand over the last 10 years. Today, there are tools available to handle a wide variety of tasks in the shed, with the herd, and around the farm.
The Varney's core goal for automation was to reduce the need for external labour on their farm. With this in mind, they investigated a wide variety of options, including Automatic Cup Removers, Monitoring Systems, Automatic Drafting Gates, Teat Sprayers, and most recently, Mastitis Detectors.
"Farmers looking to automate should select tools based on their farming system and farm environment," said Max.
Some paddocks on Varney’s Eden had never been break-fed due to the contour before Halter. Now, Max can virtually break-feed the entire farm from his phone, giving him more options for managing his pasture and herd movements.
Having now installed a variety of systems, including Automatic Cup Removers, Halter (Health & Fertility Monitoring & Herd Movement), the Easy Draft Gate by Herd Automation, the Wet It teat sprayer, and the Bovonic QuadSense Mastitis Detection system, the Varney's are seeing major benefits.
The biggest game changer was when the Varney's installed the Easy Draft gate by Herd Automation and integrated it with Halter's fertility and health data. In trying to build a 1.5-man milking shed, this integration has been essential in achieving Varney's automation goals. Now, they can just continue milking, knowing the cows they need are automatically drafted off and ready to go at the end of milking.
The Bovonic QuadSense Mastitis Detectors have also been a massive win at Varney's Eden.
"We are now achieving more days of excellent milk and we don't strip cows anymore. With on-farm cultures, simple leg bands and the Easy Draft gate, we can now easily manage our staph cows, prevent the spread and reduce the culls required. That's better for us, this business and the cows".
The compounding effects of the various automation tools have given the Varney's a new perspective on farming.
"I feel I have a better handle of the overall picture. You get a better bird's eye view of the farm, previously I just didn't have time to gain that view without the automation".
A portion of this time and clarity has been gained from installing the Wet It automatic teat sprayer and simple cup removers. Often, these small repetitive jobs that seem easy actually take up space and time in decision-making. All these little things compound together and ultimately create a reactive farming environment.
"Combining all of these automations together in the shed our management strategies get better as we have more time and energy to consider the best solutions and it shifts your entire perspective to a proactive farming mindset".
What is proactive farming?
"I feel more in control, more prepared and it's easier to plan. Prior to automation, there was a lot more labour on the farm and probably a lot less got done overall to be honest, a lot more time was spent on mundane but important chores and these responsibilities each shave some time off the day that you have available. If I had to go back to farming without automation I would because I love farming but I don't want to!".
Return on investment is always a key discussion when it comes to automation as each system or automation you put in does have a cost.
"Yes we are getting a return on investment, yes I do get an extra 30 minutes of sleep every morning and yes we have achieved our goal of creating a 1.5-man milking shed".
Technology has never been a passion of Max's. When upgrading his shed he found all of the support that comes with the various tools has been incredibly beneficial.
"Many of the tools come with some kind of subscription but that really sets us up for success as I have great contact and support from their technical teams which give us piece of mind and they keep the shed running how I expect it to".
We asked Varney what he can see in the future for further automation and as a whole he can see plenty of opportunity for farmers and agribusinesses to collaborate to create even better systems together.
"For us, we defined our goal and set out to create a superior owner-operator system using automation. We are proud to say that we have achieved that and will continue to look toward the future of how we can do things better on the farm".
