Simple App Is Key To Driving Cornish Dairy Farmer’s Business Plan.
A Driven Young Farmer.
Over the past seven years, Cornish dairy farmer Tom Jones has overhauled his family business to simplify every area of management, with the ultimate goal of improving profitability.
The 28-year-old, who farms with his wife Clare and his parents Chris and Jackie near Davidstow, joined the family enterprise after completing his GCSE’s, having always been passionate about dairy farming.
At that time, the farm milked 120 Holstein cows, the average yield was 9,000 litres per cow. With this Tom and Chris quickly realised the high demands of the system, without seeing sufficient financial rewards.
Making Efficiency the Priority.
Today, the farm has seen a complete U-turn in their approach to managing their herd, which now has 275 cows and averages 5,500 litres per cow. The system is grass-based, with cows typically out from February to December, the TMR is no longer fed, with the cows eating self-fed silage at the clamp during the winter months.
The farm now operates a block calving pattern, with 175 calving in Spring and 100 in the Autumn. The breeding program has moved towards British Friesian and Jersey to produce a herd more suitable to the grass-based system, with capacity and feet traits being a priority.
Taking the Hassle out of Farm Paperwork.
For Tom and family one of the most beneficial changes has been switching to a new farming app, Herdwatch. The App has helped them to get on top of farm paperwork and eliminate the frustration surrounding it.
“We had to look for ways to make the daily demands of our business more efficient.One of the most recent changes tackled the amount of time we were spending on paperwork, particularly at peak calving times in the spring”.
Farm assurance dictates that paperwork cannot be compromised even during busy seasons. So, Tom wanted an alternative that would allow him to update records quickly and easily.
“We have saved hours by using the Herdwatch app on our mobile phones.When a calf is born, you literally press a button and the passport application is done or, when we treat a cow, the medicine records are quickly updated.”
Learn more about the Farm Medicine Scanner.
Tom recording Medicine into the Herdwatch app from his phone.
Herdwatch can operate offline.
Another great feature of the app is that you can have it on as many phones as you want.
“My father and I both have it on our phones and we also have it on an Ipad.”
Likewise Herdwatch can function offline this allows work to be recorded anywhere at anytime.
“It works around the farm, even when you don’t have internet access, it works offline and just backs up the cloud when you get Wifi.”
Herdwatch is fully approved by BCMS and Compliant with Red Tractor and Trading Standards.
You too can join Andrew and over 8,000 happy farmers saving time on farm paperwork and managing their farms more efficiently for just as little as £2.50 a week.
The new Free-Plan which allows farmers to:
- Download their Herd from APHIS (NI), BCMS (UK) or Agfood (IRL)
- Record 5 calf registrations
- Record their medicine purchases
- Record Heat detection and general tasks