Abstract

Many New Zealand farmers either do not record paddock grazing events or do not retain grazing data after making decisions about cow feeding and pasture management. This study, conducted at the Northland Agriculture Research Farm (NARF), aimed to determine whether GPS-enabled devices suitable for use on cattle could be used to automate the recording of grazing events on-farm. Accordingly, 12-13 cows within each of the three herds (herd size range 59- 85 cows) were fitted with an AGTECH360 Livestock Tracker from 1 December 2021 to 31 March 2022. The GPS location data were then compared with manual grazing records. The grazed paddock was correctly identified on 80- 92% of occasions, depending on the herd. These results indicate that it is feasible to automate the recording of onfarm grazing events by fitting a proportion of the herd with GPS-enabled devices. Keywords: dairy farm systems; grazing records; global positioning systems (GPS); Internet of Things (IoT); low-power wide-area network (LPWAN); LoRa

Hofmann, WA, Edwards JP, and Neal MB

New Zealand Journal of Animal Science and Production, Volume 83, Rotorua, 1-4, 2023