Farmers taking an App Savvy Approach to Calf Registration Compliance
CALVING season 2017 is drawing to a close and this year more farmers are getting more app savvy than ever and used the Herdwatch App for their calf registrations direct to the Department of Agriculture as part of their compliance requirements.
62% more calves were registered through the app so far in 2017 compared to the same period last year, saving farmers an extra 4,416 hours on paperwork, which is 5 minutes per calf registered.
With 14% of the National Calf Births in Ireland being registered through the app, which is an increase of 9% on last year, it is clear to see that this is the way forward for calf registration compliance. The Top 5 App Savvy Counties The top app savvy counties for calf registration are Cork, Tipperary, Kerry, Limerick and Kilkenny, with their adoption increasing on average by over 50% during this year’s calving season.
Liam O’Keeffe, who farms in Ballydesmond, where he is currently milking 70 spring calving cows and rearing their heifers, is positive about the app. “Calving down 70 cows on your own is a time and energy consuming task, but I don’t need pen or paper anymore to register the calves,” said Liam. “And most importantly the information recorded is always 100% correct as the calf and dam are there beside me when I am registering them on the app. And you don’t even need 3G or Wi-Fi to do this.”
David Lowry is farming with his Father John in Holycross, Tipperary, where they are milking 66 cows along with running a Suckler Herd and finishing all the male animals born on farm. David is one of the app savvy farmers in Tipperary that registers all his calves through Herdwatch, he says; “it saves me hours and allows me to register the calves as I tag them. I don’t have to spend an hour or two in front of the computer anymore when I get off the farm.”
Liam and David are part of a growing community of over 5,500 farmers using Herdwatch every day to manage their herds and eliminate farm compliance paperwork.
You can start a 30-day free trial of Herdwatch at www. herdwatch.ie.