| 41 nzdairy DAIRY INNOVATION » Massey University Electronic cow collars are becoming increasingly used on dairy farms. All collars track an animal’s identity, some record health status, many track where a cow walks and some let cows know when and where to move. Dairy Control and Automation AUCKLAND WELLINGTON CHRISTCHURCH FREE Engineering Advice www.johnbrooks.co.nz 0800 48 49 50 POWER TRANSMISSION GEARBOXES ELECTRIC MOTORS VSD & CONTROLLERS AUTOMATION FLUID HANDLING MASSEY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOOD & TECHNOLOGY by the computer. “Chances are they will stand up and take a dump on that spot. And you make sure ‘that spot’ is up-hill a bit, well away from depressions and waterways. You’re shifting nutrient around the farm at will, away from environmental danger and toward where you need it most. You can make a grazing trajectory pass through high-selenium brassica or high condensed tannin forage, or you can rest your herdlet on a pad and collect urine for spreading.” While all of this sounds somewhat Orwellian, futuristic and risky, Richard reminds us that the electric fence was once seen in the same light. “It was not the electric fence that revolutionised the dairy industry in New Zealand, it was the Kiwi cocky who learned how best to use it, in sun and storm. So it will be with guided cows. I believe this is a technology so powerful that it cannot fail to be used. I don’t see much else that can both increase productivity and better manage nutrient loadings on pasture. I would like farmers to start thinking about grazing trajectories, small groups of happy cows mowing fresh pasture. Forget about fixed paddocks and large single herds. They’ll fade away.” While a technologist at Massey University’s School of Food and Advanced Technology, and dealing mostly with stainless steel inside factories, Richard says sometimes insights from “The ‘grazing trajectory’, out and back, is calculated and controlled by a computer. Tuning the trajectories will become a specialised job – perhaps done remotely by an expert living at the beach.” outside a field can be useful to spur innovative experts within. *Richard Archer (2009) “Fenceless New Zealand Dairy Farming”, pp 8 – 16 in Future Food Farming; ed Alan Emerson and Jacqueline Rowarth published by NZX in November 2009.
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