Fossil Farmers
In terms of adoption of technology in agriculture I am an old fossil. Sally says when it comes to computers I have “learned helplessness”, which is not so subtle code for outright lazy! Ouch!
Every night my boys excitedly tell me about Minecraft and what computer games they are playing and I determinedly try to look interested but they see right through my pretence.
But old dogs can learn new tricks and they can change. If I had the money the next thing on my shopping list for the farm is a herd health management program. It is game changing stuff. It takes a really skilled stockperson to pick a cow in early stages of an illness whether that be pneumonia, mastitis, or milk fever. Remember you have to pick that sub clinical cow with hardly any visible signs out of a mob of 1000 animals. This computer can have it sorted before breakfast. The model I am eyeing off is a small electronic reader the size of a 50 cent coin that clips over the existing ear tag therefore is non-invasive (tick). The three main things it measures are movement, time spent eating and temperature at the ear.
When cows chew grass their ears wobble around in circles, and when they move their ears wobble in a different sort of circle. This incredible technology uses the angle and direction of movement of the ear as well as the temperature at the ear to determine (with remarkable accuracy) the cow’s vital data. It then correlates the individual cow’s data with the herd average.
This data is available before the cows arrive at the dairy for the morning milking. The list will outline which cows require a health check, those due to have a little hanky panky time with the bull and a host of other vital information. These cows are put on auto-draft and are there waiting for you to attend to at the end of milking- incredible!
And some other incredible news…Our milk + chocolate was sighted in supermarket shelves in Sydney and Brisbane last week.
Not bad for a lazy old fossil!
If you’re happy and you know it, dance a jig,
Paul