What our farmers think:
Milking times are quicker, people have more time for other tasks
Dalmore Farms in Pareora near Timaru, New Zealand is owned by the Collins family.
Peter Collins has been farming in the valley for 55 years. With his wife Bonny and their two sons they milk 1400 cows. The feed requirements of the herd are all grown and processed on the farm. The cows are housed all year round.
They milk every day of the year.
Problem
A 60 bail rotary is always going to be busy milking 1400 cows twice a day. Cow flow is very important. Inconsistent use of the backing gate from day to day was slowing down milkings, the cows did not know what to expect. Training staff to manage the backing gate in the same way every day was demanding.
Solution
Gatekeeper was installed in 2021, an advanced Artificial Intelligence system using cameras to provide live imaging, data is processed through Moover software to manage the backing gate. Gatekeeper observes and does the thinking, controlling the backing gate autonomously.
Colin Muir, the Dairy Unit Operations Manager at Dalmore Farms explains the families reaction to learning about this new technology -
When I was told about Gatekeeper, a system that looks after the backing gate automatically, I put the idea to Peter and the guys, we’re all into technology and
we thought. Why not give it a crack.
The Collins family take science and technology seriously in their business. Genome testing is not new, it has been used to confirm lineage for some time. Identifying marker genes to select future herd characteristics is a new approach. Peter says -
We’re using science to build our herds.
Outcome
After two seasons of working with Gatekeeper, Colin says -
I love to see calm relaxed cows in the yard. When she’s chewing her cud, she’s relaxed, she's ruminating, she's making milk. We still have lame cows, but we are not getting injuries from the backing gate anymore.
It’s proved to be pretty good.
Conclusion
Milking times are quicker, people have more time for other tasks.
The cows are calm and the incidence of lameness is reduced.
Gatekeeper’s technology is delivering benefits to Dalmore Farms