Some of the technologies presented include pasture mass measurement, heat detection activity meters, daily body weight measurements and robotic milking systems. For each technology, fact sheets, case studies and short videos provide a comprehensive snapshot including the main suppliers and links to further resources.
“Precision dairy technologies can help farmers make better decisions within their businesses,” said Chris Murphy, Group Manager, Farm Profit and Innovation, Dairy Australia.
“There are many new and emerging technologies used to improve measurement, monitoring, labour efficiency and/or management functions on a dairy farm and the fact sheets explain how the technology works, the data it provides, and how farmers can use the information in decision making,” he said.
Farmer experience, depending upon the technology and individual circumstances, will vary but time or significant costs may be saved.
Mr Murphy said the website case studies prove this point; for example, Colac farmer Mark Billing estimates that using activity meters as a back-up to visual heat detection, he saves at least $7,000 per year on his 450 cow herd.
“Yolla farmer Duncan MacDonald takes about 1 ½ hours to measure the pasture mass of each paddock with a C-DAX pasture meter on his 180 hectare farm and when he used the manual rising plate meter it took him a full day,” said Mr Murphy.
Additional technologies will be added to the website over the next few months.
Source: DairyAustralian