Lame As Series
This week I had a chat with Rob Neeley, a 50:50 shareholder milking 600 cows in Southland. Rob was one of the early adopters of Herd-i when it was first launched (as OmniEye). Rob has two seasons of using Herd-i under his belt and so I was keen to hear about his experience with how this innovative technology is shaping his approach to managing his herds health and productivity.
“The system filled a gap we had with identifying lame cows quickly. Our staff weren’t spotting issues early enough, and when I first saw Herd-i, it just made sense. I was confident it would work for us—and it has.”
Rob’s approach to farming is focused: his cows are his most valuable asset. “As a sharemilker, cow condition is crucial,” Rob says. “If you catch lameness early, you can treat it quickly, and that’s been a key philosophy on our farm. Healthy cows mean more milk in the vat, so it’s in our best interest to ensure they stay in top condition.”
Improving Lameness Management
Herd-i’s introduction has transformed how Rob manages lameness on his flat, well-maintained farm. While his farm’s layout, with a central shed and short races in “mint” condition, might suggest fewer issues, Herd-i uncovered more lameness than he anticipated. “One of the key benefits of Herd-i is that it picks up on cows I would never see – especially those in the middle of the herd. It doesn’t matter how good you are – you will never spot those cows. It’s like having an “eye in the sky”. Rob says.
As well as being an early adopter of new tech, Rob enjoys hoof trimming himself and still trims the most severe cases himself. The data-driven insights provided by Herd-i has changed how Rob manages hoof trimming. “Before Herd-i, I’d miss some of the cows that needed trimming, but now I can go through the data every couple of days and instantly sort the lame cows in descending order of severity” Rob explains. “I’ll check my review list, watch the video’s to select which cows need to be treated, and make sure I’m on top of it. It’s so much more efficient.”
Making Tough Decisions: Culling
One of the more impactful outcomes of adopting Herd-i has been Rob’s ability to make better informed culling decisions. “We’ve culled a number of cows based on the data Herd-i provides. These were cows that consistently came up as lame despite our interventions,” Rob shares. “Without Herd-i, I’m not sure we would have caught them as early or as often. The reliable repeatable consistency of the data gives me the confidence to make those tough decisions.”
After two season. Rob is using the data generated by Herd-i to identify cows that he would not breed off. “I can see that some cows have a history of lameness which is recurring, and I am using Herd-i to start building a database which I will use to make my breeding decisions.
Embracing Farm Technology
Rob’s willingness to embrace technology on farm technology doesn’t stop with Herd-i. His farm also uses Allflex collars which have changed the game mating-wise. “The collars have definitely helped, but it’s a lot of data to process. It’s taken me a couple of seasons to fully get my head around it,” he says with a laugh. “But if I see a benefit, I’ll give it a go. When I asked him whether he would consider himself to be a tech junkie he chuckles (and his partner was laughing in the background) “Yeah, I suppose I am,” he admits. “If I see a benefit in something then I will give it a go”.
The Future of Farming
Rob is one of the farmers who is playing a key role in the development of Herd-i’s new automated Body Condition Scoring (BCS) system. There is a BCS camera installed on his farm, collecting images that will be used to develop the machine learning model that BCS Calibration Vets will train to assess and score. Rob is also one of the farmers who will get early access to the proof of concept for the BCS system, giving him the opportunity to provide feedback on how the system will work and the sort of information that will be most useful to farmers. Rob is really interested in seeing how he will be able to make use of the trend data that automated daily body condition scores will provide.
As Rob looks toward the future, he’s confident that AI and advanced technology will continue to shape how he manages his farm. “I use ChatGPT all the time, it is incredible” Rob shares. “AI presents huge opportunities for farming, it can do a lot of things better than we can. It’s exciting to see where things are heading.”
Wrapping Up
As we wrapped up our conversation, Rob reflected on the changes Herd-i has brought to the way he manages his herd and shared his future vision for maximizing the performance of his herd through data-driven decisions, impacting optimized breeding and an AI-enabled in-shed feed system that provides customized nutrition to individual cows based on automated BCS.
Thanks to Rob for such a great chat and for sharing his well-considered insights into how Herd-i is shaping the way he farms.
To end our chat on a lighter note, I couldn’t help but ask Rob for his most lame joke. He didn’t disappoint: Why do cows have hooves instead of feet?
The punchline… Because they lactose!
Now that really was lame!
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