Two recognised and respected brands in the dairy industry have taken a joint approach to what is being termed “super smart” effluent monitoring and control.
Tag IT, with their Halo brand, have entered an exclusive supply agreement with Reid & Harrison’s Yardmaster brand to supply an effluent management solution tailor-made for customer needs.
In December 2015, Reid & Harrison ran a workshop with eight customers, facilitated by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Better by Design initiative. The idea was to find what key common issues dairy farmers were facing in the effluent management space.
The farmers were concerned about issues like the guesswork needed to effectively control effluent, the amount of time compliance was taking and the need for better portable, real-time visibility of their effluent system.
Reid & Harrison researched the technology in the marketplace and realised one company, Tag IT, was already there with their Halo product range. Halo was covering effluent monitoring, as well as having water, milk and weather monitoring, allowing one dashboard to cover most farm needs from one display.
The use of cloud-based technology provided portable visibility as well as cost-effective control of the technology.
What was missing was the enhanced control of the equipment, namely to be able to use the technology to run the pump at different flows and duties, from a phone, tablet, computer or the on-site unit, with real-time monitoring and recording.
A joint development project was launched and one of the original customers from the December workshop trialled the prototype unit. A supply agreement was entered and the rest is history.
“We are extremely excited that we have a customer-driven solution that really gives control back to the person who needs it the most, the farm owner or manager,” Keith Cooke, chief executive of Reid & Harrison, says.
“Tag IT has a similar culture to our company, making the joint project a real collaboration.”
Yardmaster Halo will be sold through the Yardmaster nationwide dealer network.
