Brian Reidy, a suckler farmer from Ballylooby near Cahir in County Tipperary, calves down around 50 mostly Charolais Cows. Around 60% of these cows calve during the autumn months. Brian runs his own dairy and beef nutrition consultancy Premier Farm Nutrition as well as farming. This means that he spends a lot of time on the road which makes it even harder for him to keep on top of his farm compliance paperwork. Two years ago, Brian joined Herdwatch and found it was the solution to his problem, making life on the farm and on the road a whole lot easier for him.
Taking the stress out of the Bord Bia audits
With the Herdwatch app, Farmers can record all of their Bord Bia remedies for cattle and sheep. Brian says “I record all my treatments and feed purchases in Herdwatch as they happen”. The whole audit process can be a stressful time for farmers, however Brian found using the app made a big difference: “my last audit was so easy, he just went through the report I printed from Herdwatch while we had a coffee in the house”.
Get your cows back in calf quicker
Keeping a tight calving pattern can prove to be quite difficult when the majority of your cows are being served indoors, Brian now finds Herdwatch helps him greatly with this: “When I see a cow bulling, I record the heat in Herdwatch in advance of the breeding season”. Brian also loves the breeding reminders on the app: “I’m always checking Herdwatch for when a cow is due to repeat or for cows that have not come into heat yet”. Recording all his serves and scanning results in Herdwatch means that “there is no more rooting through pieces of paper or looking at excel sheets, it’s all there in the one app, that’s the beauty of Herdwatch”.
Calves registered in seconds
Brian explains how the app helps at calving time: “When I’m registering calves, I literally have all the information there in Herdwatch, so I can register the calves as I tag them”.
Average Daily Gains at your fingertips
Knowing your animal’s average daily gain is the key to profitability, Brian finds this part of the app really effective: “It’s really handy, you can run a calf through the scales, put the weight into Herdwatch and it will calculate the average daily gain for you. I’m achieving an ADG of 1.2 to 1.4kg for my autumn calves”.
All your records in one place
Herdwatch lets you look at an animal’s history and make informed decisions, anytime, anywhere, even with no internet access. Brian’s father Pat also has Herdwatch on his phone which makes life even easier, “If I’m working away and he is wondering about a cow or a calf, he can just check it on his phone, it’s that easy, it’s all there on all our devices”.
Brian is part of a community of thousands of farmers using Herdwatch at only €99 per year. Get your 1 month free trial and see how Herdwatch will change the way you farm for the better!
A free trial is currently available on www.herdwatch.ie. For more info or to request a call back text ‘frs HW112’ + your name to 51444
