Showing off app until cows come home
TECHNOLOGY: A farmer at Fieldays will livestream the Halter app, remotely moving the cows on his farm.
Visitors to Fieldays this year will get a taste of how Halter works when the company livestreams a farmer using their technology to shift his cows from the Halter Fieldays site.
While on-site at Mystery Creek, Pete Morgan, who runs a 600-cow farm in Waikato, will use the Halter app to shift his mob remotely in Te Awamutu. A live stream will show cow movements in real time.
“At our farm, we are designing breaks with different shapes that optimise exactly the accurate allocation of feed, cows move quietly at their own pace, and the farm has had a huge lift in productivity. Without a doubt, Halter has changed the way we farm.”
Halter cheif executive Craig Piggott is looking forward to sharing their ground-breaking technology with such a wide and captive audience.
“Pete will shift his cows from Fieldays, and this is huge because he can be at Fieldays or anywhere really, and his farm continues to operate.
“I love seeing a farmer's reaction to a virtual shift. It's a look of sheer wonder as they see cows calmly moving to another break, all at their own pace. No dogs, no motorbikes, no walking behind cows. Just a collar and a smartphone. Fieldays is a great opportunity for us to show just how simple and life-changing it can be.”
Just like Fieldays, Waikato is where Halter began. From humble beginnings on its research farm in Morrinsville six years ago, Halter now supports hundreds of farmers and tens of thousands of cows across New Zealand, with significant uptake in the South Island.
Halter supports farmers in unlocking the most productive and sustainable farms, Piggott says. The system combats labour shortages and improves animal health and performance by enabling farmers to remotely shift, virtually fence and proactively monitor the health of their cows.
Halter also features an integrated pasture management system to help farmers get the most out of their grass, he says. By leveraging real-time data, Halter automatically calculates feed and, coupled with their virtual fencing, allows for more precise kgdm or pasture allocation per cow.
By automating some of the most time-consuming tasks on the farm, he says, Halter significantly reduces workloads, allowing farmers to use their time more efficiently.
Piggott says Halter is meeting the industry’s demand for positive and more efficient change.
“Halter is a tool enabling farmers to operate more sustainably and productively. Our system relieves farmers from some of the more mundane tasks allowing them to perform at a higher level.
“Although we are an innovative system, we are all about the original principles of farming — knowing individual cows better and understanding cows’ health and performance,” he says.