David Walker and sons
David Walker returned to the family dairy farming operation in the early 1970s after Massey University and progressed to farm ownership. He was the third generation farmer, and his two sons, Simon and Nicholas, are now the fourth generation in farming, plus a small cartage and fertiliser spreading business.
David got into farmer politics from 1987 and was a director Kiwi Co-operative Dairies, plus a director of an electricity supply company in the early 1990s. He had off-farm interests from the mid 1980s and was supported by farm staff members, then his sons. From May 2000 onwards he was involved in the Kiwi subsidiary Fencepost.com, the internet portal for farmers, which was launched in August 2000.
His role was to give the practical farmers input to the design and services. The principles of Fencepost were instantaneous internet communication, with community interaction and the practical tool set for analysis and benchmarking. It was realised that broadband internet service greatly enhanced the technological platform and David was appointed by Fonterra (formed in 2001) to negotiate with Telecom in the contract to bring all Fonterra suppliers into Fencepost, offering broadband capability nationwide. He has been employed by Telecom as rural strategy manager since the end of 2003.
The main aim of the contract was to deliver broadband service by any one of three routes,wire,wireless or satellite to all Fonterra shareholders by May 2005 and to market the availability. The rollout has been has been achieved. The uptake is good, but Telecom continues with its marketing efforts on what broadband services will mean to farmers. Big gains are available in productivity from applications and tools, Walker says.
The first need is for information-gathering devices to gather data and create the flow of information. For instance milk vat,, soil temperatures, air temperatures, soil moisture, soil test, productivity measures, flow meters, animal databases. Telecom is partnering with BayCity New Zealand (Timaru) is rolling out farmside remote monitoring services (RMS) to unlock greater on-farm productivity, risk management and traceability. Data is gathered and viewed in real time on mobile phones, handhelds, notebooks or personal computers. Sensors are connected to farm vats, tanks and silos, to electronic weather stations, soil probes, water flow meters and various items of electrical equipment like pumps, power fences and power supplies, and to fixtures such as gates and doors, plus movement sensors. Farmers can access and manage the information from mobile phones, handhelds or notebooks. Once in the office, using a Telecom broadband connection, farmers visit their own dedicated Farmside RMS web portal to view, integrate, combine and analyse data. They can make productivity decisions, take remedial action against faults, risks or adverse weather conditions, control farm equipment remotely and direct staff and contractor activity. Examples are spraying decisions, irrigation, fertiliser spreading, security monitoring, water and milk flow metering and the integration of environmental conditions with farm management.
Walker RMS property uses
Milk vat monitoring for cooling processes and volume.
Hot wash temperatures and efficiency.
Alert system
Advice to Fonterra for milk volumes
Weather data collection
Water line flow meters.
Webcam for security.
Livestock Improvement Protrack farm automation services
Protrack was developed to help farmers manage increasing herd sizes. It takes out the hassles in finding, drafting, treating and recording cows.
The system consists of RFID tags, electronic tag readers, automatic drafting unit, computers, monitors and software. Power supply is protected, which is essential in farm situations. Tag readers are located at the entry and exit of farm dairies. Visual and audio alerts notify the people milking that a particular animal has entered a bail. Alerts can be customised to display any message for any cow. New information and animal details can be recorded against individual animals during milking using single key entry on a nearby waterproof keyboard. Information doesnt have to be written down or recorded twice, ensuring accuracy. At exit cows can be drafted three ways.
The system can be linked to milk meters and weigh scales. Animal health observations and treatment records can be entered in the dairy during milking to ensure re-treatment, milk separation and monitoring of animals that have been recently treated.
Drafting could be for AB service, lameness, drying off, treatments, high somatic cell counts and culling. Simon Walker oversees this part of the farm use of technology.
Broadband provides opportunities to use decision-support tools, uploading and downloading information quickly, remote diagnostics, farm benchmarking, access to milk company records like milk volume receipts and building up paddock histories.
David got into farmer politics from 1987 and was a director Kiwi Co-operative Dairies, plus a director of an electricity supply company in the early 1990s. He had off-farm interests from the mid 1980s and was supported by farm staff members, then his sons. From May 2000 onwards he was involved in the Kiwi subsidiary Fencepost.com, the internet portal for farmers, which was launched in August 2000.
His role was to give the practical farmers input to the design and services. The principles of Fencepost were instantaneous internet communication, with community interaction and the practical tool set for analysis and benchmarking. It was realised that broadband internet service greatly enhanced the technological platform and David was appointed by Fonterra (formed in 2001) to negotiate with Telecom in the contract to bring all Fonterra suppliers into Fencepost, offering broadband capability nationwide. He has been employed by Telecom as rural strategy manager since the end of 2003.
The main aim of the contract was to deliver broadband service by any one of three routes,wire,wireless or satellite to all Fonterra shareholders by May 2005 and to market the availability. The rollout has been has been achieved. The uptake is good, but Telecom continues with its marketing efforts on what broadband services will mean to farmers. Big gains are available in productivity from applications and tools, Walker says.
The first need is for information-gathering devices to gather data and create the flow of information. For instance milk vat,, soil temperatures, air temperatures, soil moisture, soil test, productivity measures, flow meters, animal databases. Telecom is partnering with BayCity New Zealand (Timaru) is rolling out farmside remote monitoring services (RMS) to unlock greater on-farm productivity, risk management and traceability. Data is gathered and viewed in real time on mobile phones, handhelds, notebooks or personal computers. Sensors are connected to farm vats, tanks and silos, to electronic weather stations, soil probes, water flow meters and various items of electrical equipment like pumps, power fences and power supplies, and to fixtures such as gates and doors, plus movement sensors. Farmers can access and manage the information from mobile phones, handhelds or notebooks. Once in the office, using a Telecom broadband connection, farmers visit their own dedicated Farmside RMS web portal to view, integrate, combine and analyse data. They can make productivity decisions, take remedial action against faults, risks or adverse weather conditions, control farm equipment remotely and direct staff and contractor activity. Examples are spraying decisions, irrigation, fertiliser spreading, security monitoring, water and milk flow metering and the integration of environmental conditions with farm management.
Walker RMS property uses
Milk vat monitoring for cooling processes and volume.
Hot wash temperatures and efficiency.
Alert system
Advice to Fonterra for milk volumes
Weather data collection
Water line flow meters.
Webcam for security.
Livestock Improvement Protrack farm automation services
Protrack was developed to help farmers manage increasing herd sizes. It takes out the hassles in finding, drafting, treating and recording cows.
The system consists of RFID tags, electronic tag readers, automatic drafting unit, computers, monitors and software. Power supply is protected, which is essential in farm situations. Tag readers are located at the entry and exit of farm dairies. Visual and audio alerts notify the people milking that a particular animal has entered a bail. Alerts can be customised to display any message for any cow. New information and animal details can be recorded against individual animals during milking using single key entry on a nearby waterproof keyboard. Information doesnt have to be written down or recorded twice, ensuring accuracy. At exit cows can be drafted three ways.
The system can be linked to milk meters and weigh scales. Animal health observations and treatment records can be entered in the dairy during milking to ensure re-treatment, milk separation and monitoring of animals that have been recently treated.
Drafting could be for AB service, lameness, drying off, treatments, high somatic cell counts and culling. Simon Walker oversees this part of the farm use of technology.
Broadband provides opportunities to use decision-support tools, uploading and downloading information quickly, remote diagnostics, farm benchmarking, access to milk company records like milk volume receipts and building up paddock histories.