TECHNOLOGY
At the touch of a button By Cheyenne Nicholson
Farmers can sit back with their feet up at home and draft cows through an app on their phone while the herd are happily grazing in the paddock out on the farm.
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one are the days when a cow being manually drafted slips past the drafting gate and runs back to the paddock or someone forgets to enter her number at the shed. A new cow guidance system from Halter has put an end to all of those hassles. The system, which took a year to make, gives farmers the ability to draft cows in the paddock instead of in the shed, opening up the door to better time efficiency and improved stock management. Business manager Steve Crowhurst says the reaction has garnered a lot of excitement and the flow-on benefits of the new capability are huge. “The concept of asking a cow or a small group to come out the paddock for whatever reason is a big time-saving,” Crowhurst says. “This gives farmers a whole new set of capabilities. Farmers are really amazing at thinking of the most optimal way of managing their farms, so we’re
Halter collars fitted to cows are sent signals such as vibrations and sound cues to get one, two or 20 cows moving to where the farmer wants them to go. excited to see how farmers are going to use this.” Through Halter collars, each cow is individually guided. The new guiding
The new in-paddock drafting system from Halter is all done with the touch of a button from your phone.
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system builds off that and enables farmers to select one or a small group of cows on the app and ask those cows to come out of the paddock using vibration and sound cues to get the cows moving forward, left and right. “We see this being a huge asset during mating; farmers can ask cows to come out of paddock at any time for AB and not have to keep them close to the shed,” he says. “Calving is another key time we see this being beneficial with drafting out cows that are due to calve soon and get them into a better paddock for calving to help head off potential calving issues.” Traditional drafting is typically managed via an auto drafting system built into the exit of the cowshed. It’s costly, involves building infrastructure, isn’t foolproof and the system dates quickly. This new drafting system with Halter is all done with the touch of a button on your phone. “It’s been an incredible 12-months for Halter. We now launch three farms a day for our full commercial rollout and have expanded from the Waikato, including
DAIRY FARMER
April 2022
