It is 7am.
As daylight breaks on the Southland Plains, Winton dairy farmers Billy and Sharn Roskam’s morning milking is well under way.
Their 36-bail rotary is filled with the steady hum of modern machinery – from automated cup removers to automated teat sprayers and heat patches.
“It’s all about labour and efficiency,” Sharn says.
“In our first few years, come mating, we’d be up at 3am to go out and pick up bulling cows. Milking was a two-person job and AI was pretty onerous. It was an exhausting time to say the least.”
The couple are 50:50 sharemilkers on a 283-hectare (269ha effective), self-contained property, 30km north of Invercargill, running 585 crossbred cows.
They also grow about 30ha of crop and their milksolids target is 260,000kg.
The 37-year-olds have been farming crossbred cows for 11 years but their stimulus for looking deeper into technology came when they had children.
“We we’re working around the clock, juggling our new-born child and our responsibilities on the farm.
“A few years ago we made the decision that it was time to rationalise things. We knew there had to be a better way of operating.”
The couple did their research and soon found their answer.
Using LIC Protrack systems they can now work smarter and more profitably.
Protrack Draft software lets them set up drafting of cows for the next milking from wherever they happen to be and in the same time it takes to send a text.
“We generally know ahead of time what cows we need to draft out at milking. With Protrack technology we can simply enter the cow numbers into our device and the direction we want to draft them,” Billy says.
“It takes the hassle out of drafting cows by identifying their EID tag as they leave the shed after milking.”
The Roskams also use automated systems for heat detection and somatic cell count.
They rely on Protrack Heat for the automatic identification and drafting of cows in standing heat by reading heat patches while Protrack SCC provides them with live SCC results within two minutes of cupping a cow.
Sharn says the technology saves time and improves herd management decisions.
“It reduces our production losses through missed heats while removing the stress and labour costs associated with manual heat detection.
“Identifying cows on heat is critical during the farm’s mating season and the following year’s production depends on it.”
The system includes an in-race photo booth that cows walk through as they leave the shed after milking. A camera in the booth photographs the cow’s heat patch above its tail and evaluates the heat patch for signs of activation.
Cows deemed to have no activity are sent back to the paddock. If a patch is deemed activated or is missing the cow is automatically drafted to a pen ready for the Roskams to inspect and put the cow up for artificial insemination.
In recent years the Roskams have also shifted to automated body condition scoring, integrated their farm data with MINDA and fitted GPS technology to their tractor to ensure better placement of urea and fertiliser.
“I was keen to introduce all this technology for a long time as I knew we needed it,” Sharn says.
“These solutions have been the best thing to happen to our dairy farm.”
Last season they raised the farm’s milk production by 3000kg MS a head and are on track to better that again.
Adopting technology was as much about a lifestyle choice as it was about improving farm performance.
“We don’t want to be out on the farm until six or seven o’clock every night. We have a family and others do too.
“If anything, technology has helped to reduce the amount of pressure we are putting on ourselves as sharemilkers.”
Sharn says the drop in labour costs and animal health costs was balanced by the higher capital investment. However, she believes the potential for increased cow longevity, proactive farm management and labour retention make the system worthwhile.
“There was an instant payback.
“It meant we could shift to a one-person milking operation, reduce over-milking of cows and so shorten the time they are in the shed and offer more flexibility with staff rostering,” she says.
“There is a lot of herd improvement technology out there, such as herd data apps, virtual fencing and genomics, which is still being under-utilised,” she said.
“The reality is, the more data you have in your back pocket, the more insights you can draw.
“I’d encourage farmers to give it a go. Look around at what’s on offer – and try it.
“I think for farming to be endurable long-term, technology is a no-brainer, really.”
FARM FACTS
Owner: Mara Blackwell
Sharemilkers: Billy and Sharn Roskam
Location: Winton, Southland
Farm size: 283ha, 269ha effective
Cows: 585 Friesian, with some crossbred
Production 2017-18: 256,401kg MS
Target 2018-19: 260,000kg MS
