How drones, virtual fencing and smart farming tools are helping one sheep and beef farming client work smarter while supporting animal health and welfare.
Kaizen – a Japanese philosphy focusing on continuous improvement – and a desire for efficiency is driving sheep and beef farmers Nick and Alexis Wadworth to embrace technology on their farm in the Hokonui Hills.
Having first got a drone back in 2018 to help reduce labour during lambing, the couple have since upgraded their model to one with a zoom camera and are about to head into their first spring using Halter collars on their Hereford breeding cows.
They also utilise the Resolution app for farm records, have a Davis weather station for on-farm climate data, AT220 possum traps with wifi-enabled reporting at each unit, and have linked their Starlink satellite internet from the house to their sheds, to provide cell coverage on-farm.
“We haven’t gone into anything on a whim – we've thought about it all quite a lot and spoken to people before each step we’ve taken,” explains Nick. “Each thing has its purpose.”
Nick and Alexis run 8000 stock units over 2000ha (600ha effective), with a low-touch, easy care lambing policy and cattle wintered on rough scrub blocks.
Eyes in the sky
Their new drone, which is still a relatively basic model, is sent out from a few key high points on the farm over lambing and enables them to check around 1000 ewes in about half an hour, before needing a charge or a battery change. At the peak of lambing, Nick says he can send it around 3700 ewes in a couple of hours, using spare batteries.
“It’s a massive time saver and performs pretty well in Southland conditions. It’s really handy if you know there’s a storm coming to see if anything will need assistance beforehand and then to assess the damage afterwards. Going round the paddocks on a bike can just disturb the stock and cause more harm than good.”
Apart from saving time, fuel and bike maintenance costs, the drone has also given his heading dogs some respite. While they are typically still needing to physically head out into lambing paddocks most days during the first week of lambing, they only have to visit specific problem areas identified by the drone, and this reduces right down as the season progresses.
“It gives you confidence that you don’t need to go round everything and that the stock can actually do it by themselves, for the most part,” says Nick.
Virtual fencing
The couple have also recently invested in Halter virtual fencing collars for their breeding cows, to improve their grazing management and reduce the need for ongoing electric fencing on rough blocks.
“Again, it’s about efficiency. We can graze them how we want without being out there all day putting up live strand,” says Nick.
The collars can be used in conjunction with the drone, with Halter shifting the cows to a new break and the drone flying over to check feed levels.
“Instead of driving half an hour, you just flip the drone out for a couple of minutes and you can get a fair idea, especially with the zoom on the camera, of what grass they’ve got and what they're eating or not eating,” explains Nick.
“It’s quite an unreal experience when you've got the electric fencing in the palm of your hand and looking at the grass with a drone!”
In terms of animal health benefits, Nick sees virtual fencing as a way of better managing his cows’ diet by being able to shift them onto smaller breaks daily:
“They're not just going around and getting all the good stuff in one go and then spending the next few days eating the rough stuff at the bottom. They're getting held onto their break and eating all of it each day, so in that respect, they're always getting a more balanced diet.”
Knowing where the cows are and getting alerts if they haven’t moved for a while also means they should be able to identify and deal to any potential calving issues sooner this spring, he hopes.
Is the tech really an asset, or just a nice-to-have?
“The more you put into it, the more you're going to get out of it. Just putting a collar on a cow isn’t miraculously going to make her put more weight on, and drones aren’t going to see everything, but if you use these things properly, you can get some great results and benefits out of them,” says Nick.
“Tech is definitely a key part of our farming system now. It helps to ease the load, physically and mentally, and we’re still managing to get everything done with a couple of sprogs on the ground, so that’s a win!”
