Making Farming Magnificent with Monitoring: “Why Didn’t I Do This Earlier?”

After completing a building apprenticeship, he returned to work at the family farm and has been there ever since. He is now raising his children with his wife Bec on the family farm.

“I thought ‘I might give farming a go’, but I didn’t really want to milk cows. I always liked tractor work and that sort of thing. Now I’m the opposite. I like cattle work now and only like driving tractors a bit.”

His parents are still involved with the farm. Mum helps around calving time, and Dad still goes down to the shed every morning to do the last bit of milking. Bec – a schoolteacher – helps on the farm when she can with calving and milking. “We’re pretty lucky, the worker we’ve got has been with us for three years, and then I’ve got a couple of relief milkers, so it takes the pressure off,” Scott says. He believes that even though you love the work, getting time away from the farm is important. “You’ve got to go do something off the farm. It’s not good to be here all day, every day.”

They run a mixed operation, with the farm separated for dairy and beef. Scott started using CowManager in 2021 to help with ease of operation.

“We used to put stickers on the back, and I’d always have to paint some cows, and I was over that. I’d always miss a few and I just wanted to be more accurate. A lot of times with them I’ve found a cow would rub the sticker off, so you’d never know whether to join.”

Scott Browne with his herd.

Taking All the Stress Out of Joining

He went all-in with the system for the first year, trusting that it would work without the need for added tail painting or stickers. “We put them in about four-to-five months before joining, so we could collect a bit of data. I got that tip-off from a mate; he also put his in a bit earlier before joining.” Scott says that it was also an easy installation around that time. “It was good to do it in a dry period when there wasn’t so much going on.”

He installed auto drafting gates at the same time, “I didn’t have any of that sort of stuff, but I’m finding them magnificent – best money I’ve spent,” he comments.

“We just use the Fertility Module at the moment, I’ve got a nutritionist that helps with nutrition advice. If my cows look healthy and they’re milking well, then I’m happy.”

In terms of his dream cow, Scott is working towards high fertility, medium-statured cows that have good strength. “We’re sorting out the fertility first, and then the other things after that.”

When asked how his first joining with CowManager went, Scott has one word: “Magnificent! I was able to just feed my calves and all that extra work and know the cows were getting caught, that’s a big plus. I wasn’t running around like a headless chook at any point, and I didn’t have to catch the cows manually with the auto draft gates. It took all the stress out.”

Excited About the Future

That added ease also came with improved results for the farm.

“We had the best results we’ve had in a long time. Our empty rate usually sits in the 20s, but we had about 17-18%.”

“The cost of things like CowManager always threw me a little, but there’s no comparison from no system to what we’re using now, it’s like chalk and cheese. Once you get it all set up and going you think ‘why didn’t I do this earlier?’”

They’re focusing on making things on the farm easier, and CowManager has helped a lot. “Everything has just been easier; everything is there, and you can keep tabs on what’s going on. You know when one’s not working, and you can replace it.

It’s taken away some labour as well, which has been a huge stress reliever for Scott. “It’s just been less work in the dairy with no tail paint. This year is the first year we’re doing all Spring calving – we usually do split calving – but we got rid of all that and made it all one calving which has made it easy too,” he says.

Having just started with the system, Scott’s excited to see what it’ll bring him in the long run. “I was sort of just feeling my way through it the first year. I’m excited to see how much we can improve again this year.”

Dairy News Australia

This article was written by Audrey Hayes and also published by Dairy News Australia.