Friday, 18 September 2020 06:55

Vat-Man comes to the rescue

Written by  Staff Reporters
Whakatane sharemilker Troy Doherty. Whakatane sharemilker Troy Doherty.

A vat of milk, calving in full swing, and suddenly there is no power – a far from an ideal scenario for Whakatane sharemilker, Troy Doherty.

With no notice, power was cut off to fix a broken line, meaning Doherty’s vat refrigeration was out of action and the power-driven digital vat thermometer was of no use.

“I was at a loss. I wondered if we needed to call Fonterra for an early pick up. Luckily for us, we had just done some research around vat monitoring and were part-way through a Vat-Man installation with DTS,” says Doherty.

“There were other companies, which we hadn’t heard much about, offering systems. We knew and used DTS for other technology – drafting gates, weigh systems – and everything from the company had worked well. They were easy to deal with and we had good support from their technical and support people. Over the years, we had developed trust in them and their products, so it was a good fit.”

When the power went out, only the Vat-Man hardware had been mounted at the shed. Calibration sensor testing was in process and the temperature monitoring and alerts functionality was not yet up and running.

Banking on his earlier excellent service, Doherty says he thought it was worth a shot to ask if the company could fast track the calibration and monitoring. Accurate information on milk volume and vat temperature would, at least, allow him to tell Fonterra how much was in the vat for an early pick up.

“DTS were very efficient, had the whole job done quickly and kept us in the loop around the calibration process. We got hold of accurate data which meant we had confidence in our milk quality, we didn’t need a special collect from Fonterra and could wait for our usual pick-up time. The information from Vat-Man and support from DTS meant our milk wasn’t going to spoil and we weren’t going to have a financial penalty.”

Doherty believes the true value of Vat-Man is more about the future savings.

“Now I can go to my phone any time of the day and see information that is timely, relevant and easy to interpret. It is so much more than compliance. The biggest benefit is the extra security of knowing that if anything goes wrong, we will know early.”

Doherty notes an incident from the previous season.

“Last year we did dump milk because of a mechanical alert failure. We had a noisy siren that didn’t sound. By the time we knew there was a problem, it was a very expensive issue. That was obviously thousands of dollars. With the DTS Vat-Man in place, that won’t happen anymore.”

More like this

Maintaining milk flows to pay the bills

As spring calving farmers around the country enter in the final stage of lactation, the incentive to keep the milk flowing is certainly there. A strong milk price and kind first half of the season has left cows in good nick and milking well.

Udder health survey aims to create value

FIL has launched a new online survey to gain valuable insights into the challenges dairy farmers face in meeting their milk quality and mastitis prevention goals.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

DairyNZ plantain trials cut nitrate leaching by 26%

DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.

National

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter