Breeding the Ultimate Robot-Ready Jersey Herd
In the beautiful, scenic expanse of Invercargill, Joanne (Jo) Crack of Southern Star Farms is redefining what it means to run a modern, self-sufficient dairy operation.
This supports healthy digestion and steady daily growth, with the additional benefits of improved hygiene and reduced labour for farmers.
On a nutritional front, the system ensures optimal utilisation of all nutrients and more daily weight gain, using the automatic feeder - available in different models to suit different situations - using a drinking box equipped with a teat unit and an identification unit. A range of options includes a weigh system and smart sensors.
Optimal hygiene is achieved as the Calm system cleans itself automatically and its drinking hoses after every calf visit, thereby reducing any bacterial growth as the machine is cleaned and rinsed with effective detergents several times each day. This helps maintain better milk quality and consequently improves calf health.
Labour saving benefits remove the need for several repetitive tasks such as filling, mixing and carrying heavy buckets of milk and feeding the calves manually, releasing time for better observation of the animals for improved husbandry.
The recently introduced full integration of the Calm system into Lely Horizon for new Calm customers brings cows and calves together in one central platform, resulting in stronger farm management and continuous data across the entire herd.
With Calm in Horizon, farmers monitor every calf in a single interface, allowing the review of clear insights to help spot health deviations early, then intervene in a timely manner.
From a practical point of view, there is no need to switch between apps, so performance data follows seamlessly from calf to cow. Advisors can also use Calm data to further improve rearing strategies and service quality, resulting in healthier calves and, in the end, more productive dairy cows.
integrated into Lely Horizon via a subscription model, billed monthly through the existing Horizon subscription, for each Calf feeder, offering simplicity, transparency and scalability. Subscriptions are available in Basic, Control and Advance, packages, with Control and Advance giving full access to all Calm-in-Horizon features, including Health Task, reports and a cow card integration. The Basic tier you get access to all features apart from the “Sick Chance” column in Health Task.
