New cow collars can help cattle farmers by alleviating tedious farming jobs

ABC NEWS (Australia)

One of the more tedious farming jobs is moving cows to and from the dairy. But a New Zealand company says its cow collars can help alleviate the wearisome task.

Transcript

00:00Dairying is relentless, with farmers moving cows and electric fences several times a day,

00:12seven days a week.

00:17A New Zealand company says it can relieve them of these tedious jobs with its virtual

00:24fencing technology.

00:25Halter's Charlie Baker claims it's the biggest breakthrough in the industry in decades.

00:33Halter saves the average farm like 20 to 40 hours a week because they're not having to put up fences.

00:39We help lift productivity, but with less work.

00:42So there's that double benefit of lifting your revenue and working less to get it.

00:47But yeah, that there is our collar that we're working with today.

00:50Arrow on top, which faces the nose of the cow.

00:52Under each side, we've got the speakers. That's where the noise comes, the primary queue.

00:55And then the solar panels on top.

00:58The app-based system utilises a solar-powered GPS-enabled cow collar and a transmission tower.

01:07An invisible or virtual fence is set by the farmer, who draws a boundary on their smart device.

01:14They can change the boundary multiple times a day. Or they can set a timer to open and close virtual gates.

01:23Andrew Marshall, who runs the Elliott Dairy Research Facility in northwest Tasmania,

01:28showed me how they bring cows from the paddock to the dairy twice a day with no bikes,

01:33four-wheelers, dogs or people.

01:36So I just go onto the iPad here and I click on their paddock and I call them out of their gate,

01:44select the gate and call them to the dairy and then they'll come in.

01:47And how do they know that you've done something there?

01:50So they'll get a cue to their collar and then their collar will vibrate and tell them it's time to move.

01:56And we can just meet them here.

01:58They'll be ready and waiting for us.

02:00How do they know which direction?

02:02So it'll beep if they're going in the right direction.

02:06And it won't beep if they're going in the wrong direction.

02:09These cows will come in by themselves. We don't have to go and get them.

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