NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

| 23 nz dairy PH: 0800 500 387 WWW.DTS.CO.NZ WE KNOW YOUR VAT Because we’ve built 95% of New Zealand’s milk vats, we know how to monitor them, accurately. sūƥ ūŠŕǋ ƥĺîƥȡ ǅĚ ČîŠ ǛǊ ǋūƭƑ ŞĿŕŒ ČūūŕĿŠij ĿƙƙƭĚƙ ƥūūȦ ¹ĺîƥɄƙ ǅĺǋ ǅĚ ƙîǋ ǅĚɄƑĚ ŞĿŕŒ ƐƭîŕĿƥǋ ĚǊƎĚƑƥƙȦ If you need help from the experts, talk to DTS today. Hamilton based dairy services provider DTS is being transformed from a refrigeration and stainless steel manu- facturing firm into a technology compa- ny, adding value by providing farmers with the ability to make better on farm decisions via access to constant, reliable, and relevant key data. DTS is a key supplier to Fonterra’s milk vat monitoring system roll out which aims to help ensure a high level of milk quality while improving milk collection efficiency. DTS also supplies to other independent dairy companies and is now taking inbound enquiry from internation- al dairy companies too. “We haven’t actively promoted ourselves globally, but dairy companies in countries other than New Zealand are seeing value in what we’re doing,” says DTS CEO Gavin Thwaites. DTS’s new milk monitoring technology, called Vat-Man, augments DTS’ existing service offerings of farm milk cooling and milk quality by deploying smart IoT technology to capture the on-farm vat data. This technology also allows DTS to remotely monitor and manage its network from its service office in Hamilton, delivering the capability to an almost infinite number of milk vats. Never happy with the status quo, DTS is now working on a premium upgrade of Vat-Man to deliver enhanced functionali- ty to dairy farmers. “Through some very smart technology, the vat refrigeration and agitation will automatically start when they need to, and the auto-wash will activate once the tanker has completed the empty cycle of the vat. This makes the farmers’ and the milkers’ lives a lot easier, and reduces the risk of contamination of the milk before it gets to the tanker. We’ve transformed what was a very simple container for holding milk into something that has real value for the dairy farmer, giving them the data they need to allow them to make better decisions.” Its advances in monitoring technology has allowed DTS to launch into other important varieties of on-farm monitor- ing, including water input and effluent output. “Farmers are increasingly concerned about their fresh water usage and they need to know how much they are using, how much effluent they are producing, where they are spreading it, and that they are spreading it in an environmen- tally friendly manner. So the technology we’ve developed for the milk monitoring, has been adapted to incorporate water and effluent management as well. We provide time and date stamps of how much effluent has been spread, and we hold that data for farmers to provide to councils for environmental reporting purposes. Farmers need to do this, they need to have this information, and it needs to be simple to use and simple to set up.” DTS has invested heavily in this techno- logical journey, and has even made tough decisions about its existing product line in search of a better way. “Sometimes you have to disrupt yourself, otherwise someone else will do it for you,” Gavin says. “We’re now adding value to our key offerings of refrigeration and the manufacture of high-quality stainless steel milk vats and refrigera- tion. Both of these are key components to milk quality, making sure milk is kept in the optimum condition, cool and clean, before it’s picked up by the milk tanker. The layer on top of that is data.” gavin.thwaites@dts.co.nz DTS DAIRY TECHNOLOGY » AgritechNZ A farmer checks grass growth with a device, just one of a suite of tools providing capability around measuring pasture.