There’s always something new in farming and sometimes it pays to wait to see what other farmers make of new technologies - like electronic ID tags for sheep.
Rob Lawson of East Otago started weighing stock in 2003 and was so impressed that he put his hand up to try EID in his sheep.
“It’s not that long ago that we weren’t even weighing,” says Rob, who runs nearly 10,000 stock units of sheep and cattle.
Moana bought their first set of manual scales in 2003. “We recognised the enormous benefits that brought us - and so we wanted to see EID in action and determine what it can do.”
For each animal, they record weights and animal health treatments , and for ewes scanning results and some condition scores. This gives them an ongoing record that they can tap into and because they’ve used EID it shows them individual animal performance. The animal records can easily be used to assess paddock performance too.
Moana have used EID as a tool to help analyse their farm systems - and as a result they’ve set a new strategy and production targets. “Part of that has been about understanding what our business is capable of, and where future productivity gains can be made,” says Rob.
They’ve set an ambitious overall goal of 10,000 weaned lambs within four years, up 25% on the 2012/13 season. Now, everything they do is checked to make sure it heads them in this direction – and the FarmIQ System is helping track progress.
“We have had many positive outcomes [from the measuring and monitoring], and our farming business is performing at a level we would have thought unrealistic only a few years ago,” Rob says.
Other farmers have used EID to check animal health treatments, assess the value of crops for lambs or ewes at different times of year and help set targets for growing out ewe replacements.
FREE TAGS
FarmIQ works with farmers who measure and monitor without EID - managing at the mob level - as well as farmers who are tracking individual animal performance.
For farmers who are interested in giving EID a try, FarmIQ is offering free sheep EID tags with its animal-focused Packs (Animal, Animal+ and The Lot). If you crunch the numbers on this, you’ll see that the value of the free tags pays for the cost of the FarmIQ subscription!
If you’re going to use EID, you will want to do some recording. One thing you will need to take advantage of this offer is access to a reader or indicator linked to your scales.
If you want to take it a bit further, FarmIQ can show you how to set up some groups so that you can use the EID with the FarmIQ System to assess a crop, your lamb suppliers or genetics, or an animal health treatment. You don’t have to do anything different like running them in separate mobs - you just make sure you’ve recorded which ones belong to which groups and get some weights.
Farmers like Rob have put in the hard yards and proven what EID can do. So, what are you waiting for? To get more information on the FarmIQ System.
