New era for livestock farming highlighted at Ploughing in Offaly
Norwegian agtech company which pioneered virtual fencing for livestock, is expanding into Precision Livestock Management, with the launch of the N3 Collar
LIVESTOCK farming is entering a new phase of precision management the National Ploughing Championships at Screggan heard this week.
Technology once used primarily to track and contain cattle is creating new opportunities to help farmers make decisions about animal health, reproduction, grazing and land management, while reducing demands on their time and labour.
Livestock farming has always depended heavily on the farmer’s eye and instinct. This expertise remains fundamental. The challenge is that modern farms are often larger, more dispersed, and farmers today are often juggling separate careers while managing their farm too. This is where technology can help.
A farmer from Foxford Co. Mayo, Eamonn Walsh, who uses Nofence technology said: “As a farmer, technology has to make a practical difference. Nofence gives me greater flexibility, better visibility over livestock and saves valuable time. At the National Ploughing, it was great to support a European ag-tech company helping make farming more viable, particularly for those of us balancing the farm with another career.”
The Norwegian agtech company which pioneered virtual fencing for livestock, is expanding into Precision Livestock Management, with the launch of the N3 Collar. The company is bringing virtual fencing together with deeper livestock monitoring and land-management data in one platform, helping farmers understand not only where their cattle are, but which animals may require attention, how grazing is progressing and how that activity can be turned into useful farm records.
John Maher, Ireland Lead and Head of Sales at Nofence said, “Farming is a labour intensive sector, however the N3 collar will help make the day-to-day running of a small or large farm more manageable. The opportunity for precision livestock technology is limitless in helping turn the collection of data from a herd into earlier health interventions, assistance with reproduction, to more efficient land management, fewer unnecessary journeys and better records of how livestock and land are being managed, in particular for grant applications.”
Today you can monitor animal activity and behaviour, and it will flag changes that might otherwise go unnoticed until the next physical inspection. Rather than replacing observation, this creates an opportunity to make observation more targeted and routine.
The N3 collar was piloted by James Waight, who farms 450 Angus cattle across 8,000 acres of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. “Before, I'd check one thing for where the herd was, another for which cows needed attention, and drive out to see if the pasture was ready. With N3, it's all in the same app. It sounds like a small thing, but it changes how I plan the whole day,” said Waight.