Transcript
To help our Farmers grow Dairy Holdings works with Innovative partners that are the best in their field like CropX. I’m Bridget Hawkins. I’m the chief Sustainability Officer for CropX. Dairy Holdings and CropX are a great partnership. It’s really impressive how they have looked at adopting technology into their overall Farm business.
When you’ve got irrigation, being able to manage that irrigation right is the key to getting good grass. CropX has a soil moisture sensor in the ground. It’s taking measurements and providing irrigation recommendations that are based on the current soil conditions, the type of irrigation system that’s being used and the weather forecast.
Trials have shown that between 20 to 40% of water is saved when Farmers have information about the right timing and amount of water to apply. With proper irrigation, yields increase by 10 to 20%. The farmer can look at their app in the morning and they can see whether they need to be irrigating today or not. They know they’ll be putting on right amount of water at the right time.
Another key outcome is it reduces nitrogen leeching so you get the benefit of a small amount of nitrogen you need to support posture growth but you’re not causing any negative environmental effects.
What really drives me to keep doing what I’m doing and to support companies like Dairy Holdings with what they’re doing is I think that the primary industry of dairy farming is fundamental to New Zealand’s success. This tech is easy to use and understand and it benchmarks data across all our farms to enable our people to perform to the highest level.
