Dairy farmers are being strongly encouraged to invest in new technologies as a means of improving efficiency levels within their businesses.
This was the clear message coming from Dairymaster’s head of research and innovation, John Daly at the National Ploughing Championships in Co. Laois last week.
“The banks will not actively advise farmers to invest in specific technologies,” he said. “But they are asking the clients all the relevant questions.”
According to Daly, technologies, such as milk recording, heat detection and auto shedding can be used to great effect within all scenarios.
New technologies
“Milk recording is a case in point,” Daly explained. “[We] can supply the milk meters required for the generation of the sample.
“However, courtesy of our I.T systems, we can link-up with ICBF [Irish Cattle Breeding Federation] and deliver updated results on individual cows directly to the milking parlour. These will be available to the farmers as individual cows are milked.”
Daly strongly recommends that cows should be milked every four weeks throughout a lactation.
He was speaking at the launch of the new DairyVue360 farm management platform. This is a complete system, comprising recording, analysing facilities while displaying data for both the equipment and the cows.
The company said that it integrates external data, such as milk recording, and combines milk productivity data with health and fertility data to help the farmer make better decisions for the future of the farm and herd.