Dairying with data: One Waikato farmer’s move to real time monitoring

Nikita van der Heyden grew up on a farm in Putaruru, Waikato, then bought it from her parents alongside her sisters four years ago. The 370-cow split-calving herd is the same farm she has worked her whole life.

Van der Heyden says “the rotary is fitted with SenseHub 6-in-1 MilkPlus and SCC sensors”.

“I can read the yield of every cow, the cell count, the fat percentage, the protein percentage and more”

“It helps me make management calls, such as whether cows need to be dried off at a separate time, treated for mastitis or culled.

“And everything’s available on my phone.”

“The sensors work alongside SenseHub Dairy collars and feed into a three-way drafting gate. Reports run automatically at every milking, drafting out cows flagged for high cell counts, animal health alerts or a missing collar. Installation took around two days and did not interrupt milking”.

Twelve SCC sensors sit in one continuous block across the 44 bails, which means each cow is still tested several times a week, providing enough data for sound management decisions.

“The somatic cell count component works on the same principle as a manual RMT test — just fully automated”, van der Heyden says.

Her most recent herd test fell during a cyclone, which likely affected results.

“With the MilkPlus 6-in-1 sensors, we can check a cow’s production any normal day and know the results, reflect what the cows are actually doing.”

She still runs herd tests to keep indexes current. The sensors read slightly differently to a herd test because the first milk has already come out by the time they record, and cell count, protein and fat have tracked closely between the two systems.

The system is run by staff without van der Heyden needing to be present.

To watch or listen to Nikita’s story which featured as an episode of CountryWide Connect’s Agritech segment in partnership with SenseHub Dairy click here