ForFarmers has welcomed the 100th farmer to its specialist data platform OptiRobot.
Graham Holmes milks around 100 cows at Chelker House Farm, Addingham, Yorkshire, with 2 Fullwood Merlin robots. The Holmes family have been ForFarmers customers for more than 50 years and have recently joined OptiRobot on advice from Technical Manager Philip Ambler.
Graham said: “We’ve made great progress since installing robots 11 years ago. The main reason we put them in was to release the genetic potential of the cows, and that’s what we’ve done. We’re looking forward to seeing how far we can go now, with more insight from our data through OptiRobot.”
The OptiRobot system enables ForFarmers advisors to access data from customers’ robotic systems remotely and in real time. It can collect data from any manufacturer’s robots in the UK, presenting it to the farmer and their advisors in a uniform format including insightful reports and graphs to aid understanding and decision making.
Technical manager Philip Ambler explained: “With OptiRobot we can understand why something is occurring much quicker. If there are animals that are not performing as they should we can drill down to see what exactly is preventing those animals from realising their natural and genetic potential.”
OptiRobot is particularly useful for exploring the interaction between different factors which was not possible before, he added.
“With OptiRobot we can see the impact of a management or environmental change within 24 hours. It enabled us to can spot trends and issues and make corrections where needed, all with minimal disturbance to the herd.”
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