NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

22 | nz dairy DAIRY TECHNOLOGY » AgritechNZ Tech tools for productive farming A farmer starts up the rotary milking system for the first milking session of the day. The first cows are lined up and ready to go. Virginia Wright G iven that Brendan O’Connell is the CEO of AgriTechNZ it’s not surprising that he’s a technology enthusiast with a long pedigree of high-tech product development in fields ranging from biomedical to telecommunications, but it was around 15 years ago when he found the area where technology hits agriculture that he was really hooked. “I started working with Tru-Test,” explains Brendan. “ That was my entry-point into the agritech sector and I just loved it. I loved the use, and the value and the potential of what technology can offer in the way of tools for productive practice on farm.” According to Brendan AgriTechNZ’s role is to con- nect and promote agritech as a sector, both in sup- porting dairy and other farmers or growers in New Zealand as they look to improve their productivity and sustainability practises, and in creating export opportunities for New Zealand agritech technologies to other parts of the world. It’s a membership driven Non-Government Organisation (NGO) with 160 members including technology companies, early start-ups, established businesses, research groups, investor groups and government groups. What this means in practice is companies like LIC, Fonterra, Farmlands, Feder- ated Farmers and Dairy NZ sit alongside technol- ogy companies like Gallagher, Figured, DTS and research companies like Ag-Research, Massey and Lincoln Agritech. “Essentially we represent interests around the application of technology in productive land use,” says Brendan. Brendan sees the adoption of technology, whether by an industry or an individual, as a jour- ney, and in farming that journey often starts with things that help from a labour point of view, such as electric fences, automated cup removers, and drafting systems. “Those three examples of technology are pretty well understood and the value proposition of labour saving devices like these is easy to grasp,” he explains, “but they can be connected up to other things so that the next step in the journey might be things that not only help with labour but help in terms of insight into what’s going on on-farm.” The end-goal is to have the decision-making that is so important to farming success made easier by having all the information on hand that plays into a given decision – supporting or augmenting a farmer’s insight into what is happening. The infor- mation collected through dairy shed automation is a good example. “It’s automatically collecting information on indi- vidual milk volume and individual milk quality,” says Brendan. “So if there are constraints for adding more cows, whether it’s environmental concerns or the physical infrastructure of the farm, getting more insight into per cow productivity is really valuable. • to page 26 “Those three examples of technology (electric fences, automated cup removers, drafting systems) are pretty well understood and the value proposition of labour saving devices like these is easy to grasp but they can be connected up to other things so that the next step in the journey might be things that not only help with labour but help in terms of insight into what’s going on on-farm.” Dairy cows waiting to be milked with FlashMate heat sensors flashing. The FlashMate devices illuminate and begin to flash when the cow’s body temperature heats up, indicating she is pregnant. Photos – Paul Sutherland photography