Manawatu dairy farm manager Angela Strawbridge says that the FarmIQ software stands out for how it brings all farm information together in one place.
Angela has been a farm manager for Stewart Dairy Lands near Palmerston North, owned by James and Debbie Stewart, for three seasons, after previously working for them for two years as a relief milker and calf rearer.
She won Dairy Manager of the Year at the 2018 Manawatu Dairy Industry Awards in March. She works with five other fulltime staff to run a total of 800 high-producing cows on two blocks, along with replacements on a third block, adding up to 600ha.
She wrote a list last year and used it to assess the available farm management software. “I was looking for software that I could put everything into and that would give me the information I wanted.” FarmIQ ticked all the boxes.
PASTURE FOCUS
Angela has been improving her pasture management skills through DairyNZ’s Tiller Talk programme, and so she started with a focus on feed management: “That’s what feeds the cows and brings in the money!
“Specifically, I was looking for recording of pre and post grazing covers and producing a feed wedge, being able to see annual paddock yields and the paddock history – what pasture species and when it was planted, and also to see the feed on hand in a product inventory.
“We do a farm walk every 10 days to fortnight most of the year. You’ve got to be on top of it if you want to feed quality grass. FarmIQ uses the pasture measurements to create a feed wedge. It lets me see if I’m going into a feed deficit or surplus, so I can adjust.”
She’s particularly impressed by the dashboard where she can have key reports showing all on one screen, including milk production. “You can see what’s happening on a daily basis. For example, if you’re feeding too much supplement you’ll see that the milk production is not going up and you can pull back.”
STEP BY STEP
She’s taking it “a step at a time. Once I had mastered the feed side of it, I got the staff onto it. We’ve also started health and safety recording and I’ve put in the waterlines. While they’re learning one part of it, I’m learning the next one. I’m moving to the animal recording part now. I also want to get all the fertiliser applications recorded too, which will be good for the end-of-season reporting to the milk company.”
The farm gets a lot of visitors as they host overseas, school and industry groups and hold open days, so the health and safety recording is proving handy. Also, staff are using FarmIQ to record timesheets.
ONE, SIMPLE APP
Angela has an eye to the future. “This is the new generation in farming – farm management is going to be digitised. All these tools make life easier. You put the data in and you know more about your land and your farm.
“There are so many apps out there – one for this and another one for that. It’s what a lot of farmers are saying – they want to be able to put all their farm information into one app and it’s simple. You want it on your phone – and you don’t want three or four apps that take up all your memory. You want a one-stop shop.”
The phone app allows all the staff to easily record. “They have their phone with them, so if anything happens they can record it. If they see an incident they can put it in straight away; otherwise they would have to go to the shed – and it means they don’t forget.”
She also likes that the FarmIQ software is not associated with any one supplying or processing company. She previously worked with software provided by a supplier and says the problem is such programs are limited in functionality.
“FarmIQ is easy to use and to understand. You do need everyone on the farm to put information in, so it’s important that it is easy.”
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