Supporting a hi-tech future
Dairy farmers besieged by technology offers claiming to make their farms more productive and efficient, should carefully select the advances they need, says a tech-savvy farmer.
Farmers needed to embrace technology, but have a clear farming philosophy to make the right decisions, said Taranaki farmer Hayden Lawrence, at last week’s South Island Dairy Event conference at Lincoln University.
‘‘Technology is in everything we do. We can’t avoid it and we have to embrace it. We have all bought a bit of snake oil before and someone has knocked on our door [making promises] and we are often more confused than before they came through the door.’’
His farm philosophy was based around ‘‘plan, measure, manage and review’’.
Data collecting technology was being used by Lawrence, to get closer to a 10 per cent improvement on pasture use targeted by researchers.
A Taranaki, 80-hectare farm partly owned by him, was producing 14.5 tonnes of dry matter in 2008-09 and he worked out an extra $560 a hectare could be made if another 96 kilograms of milksolids a hectare was produced.
In 2011-12 dry matter production was increased to 18.5 tonnes, lowering to 16.8 tonnes in the 2012-13 season during the worst drought in 70 years. This was still better than the five year average and when the farm was first bought.
Over the past five years the farm averaged 4.4 per cent better pasture use.
Lawrence said the farm might have missed the theoretical target; but had made a solid result at an extra $301/ha at a $7 milk price, aided by a C Dax Pasture Meter and technology for feed planning, supplement production and shed feeding.
He said technology had allowed him to gain 30 years’ experience as a new farmer in year one.
Lawrence has invested in technology to spread fertiliser on his farm more accurately. Soil mapping, initially by hand and later electronically, revealed parts of the farm had been over-fertilised
A soil testing programme was matched to seven different applications and controlled fertiliser spreading technology on trucks. A fertiliser cost of $114 a hectare in 2012-13 would have blown out to $279, if he had continued fertilising without monitoring.
In a test with a new worker that proved fertiliser accuracy technology was a ‘‘no-brainer’’, fertiliser was put on a paddock without guidance. The widest band width was 20 metres and the smallest 4 metres for an average of 10.5 metres. When guidance technology was used the band width averaged 12.3 metres – close to the 12 metre target.
Allowing for spreading variations from the vehicle, the loss would be $28.20/ha compared to a $4.60/ha loss from controlled spreading.
Lawrence uses the free app G-Tasks on his smartphone to upload all work with dates, which is linked to his farm workers’ phones and ticked off when completed. Another app allows his team to record numbers, such as calves in the field.
On Twitter Lawrence gives details about grass growth rates and round speeds used by neighbours. This should be extended so farmers could build a picture of growth rates at district and national level, he said.
Grazing maps emailed to his team, so everyone can see where electric fences have been moved, are less likely to be lost than handdrawn maps.
Lawrence said farmers should be wary about allowing companies to take their data, as it will not be long before they start paying to get it back. He is looking at introducing automated milking.