Since a prototype version of the automated Teatwand was installed in a mid-Canterbury dairy in 2008, more than 1000 have been installed around the world, including Australia, the US and Europe.
Today, Canterbury-based Onfarm Solutions has expanded its Christchurch operations to meet increasing global demand for its accurate teat care solution.
Working closely with farmers, the company has also developed the Teatwand Stepover, a new innovation for combatting mastitis that will soon be available for farmers milking through herringbone dairy sheds.
Early Teatwand development was driven by a need for a modern automated solution for rotary platforms, where cow numbers have increased beyond the ability of most staff to maintain an effective teat spray pattern using manual spray devices.
Automated machines around at the time were only delivering 60-70% effectiveness, often affected by cows’ tails obstructing the machine spray pattern or by wind blow as the cows exited the dairy.
“A particular problem we were seeing was not enough spray getting accurately on all four teats, the existing systems were just spraying and hoping for the best, so we wanted to improve what was out there, and so we invented the Teatwand,” chief executive Gary Arnott says.
On a rotary platform, when the cups come off, sensors detect the cow’s precise position on the platform. The Teatwand extends under the udder and sprays exactly the right place to ensure every teat is covered, imitating the action of a human arm.
“We know precisely where the cow is positioned in the bail; using optical sensors and clever programming the system changes the spray pattern to suit,” he says.
“We now have our systems operating on all brands of rotary, anywhere in the world, including dairies in the US that milk 3000 cows three times a day.”
The new Teatwand Stepover is designed to work in any herringbone shed, anywhere in the world. This model is also suited to large “parallel parlours” used in the US.
“It’s an in-race-type system, and within a day or two the cows get used to it,” he says.
A survey of teat spray practices done a decade ago found two out of every three farmers were using the wrong dilution rate, and only one in three got good coverage of all four teats.
This was despite numerous studies that prove accurate teat spraying will reduce new infection rates by 50%.
“With mastitis being one of the main health issues dairy farmers face, it’s vital that teat spraying is done properly,” he says.
The return on investment for farmers managing teat care well is significant.
DairyNZ work has found cows with high somatic cell counts will usually produce less milk, with up to 8kg less milksolids per lactation for every increase of 250,000 SCC between 100,000 to 600,000.
Mastitis is usually the result of poor teat care management and the disease is estimated to cost NZ dairy farmers about $180 million a year, or about $37 for every milking cow.
Arnott says Onfarm’s Group philosophy and motivation is to design farmer-centric technology.
“We go to farms, look and ask precisely what their problems are. We then assemble a special R&D team to design the right solution, our recent innovation,” he says.
“It’s got to be affordable, properly engineered, fit for purpose and simple, but the most important thing is we are getting all four teats sprayed properly to bring those cell counts down.”
All Onfarm Group technologies are manufactured in Christchurch for complete quality control and a personal desire by Arnott to ensure the company is part of NZ’s thriving agri-tech start-up culture.
Another division of Onfarm Group is Onfarm Data, specialising in irrigation controls. Onfarm Data developed the One Centre Axis technology designed to encompass and control all irrigation and soil moisture management on a farm. It also supports farmers to adhere to local compliance regulations.
“The amount of quality control we implement goes down to every single bolt; no system goes out until it is thoroughly checked, and every system goes through a comprehensive test,” he says.
The Teatwand Stepover will be launched at the 2021 South Island Agricultural Fieldays in Kirwee, Canterbury, on March 24-26.
