PDA and Dairy Management

North Antrim dairy farmer, Gavin Graham, was already using herd management software for his production and fertility records. This had helped him to manage his 140 cow herd because of its links with the Animal and Public Health Information System (APHIS) Online records. He was one of the first on the scheme to try a PDA linking with an Internet based herd management system.

Gavin records events on the PDA as they happen on the farm. He inputs heats, services and calvings as well as all his farm quality assurance records. This information is automatically loaded onto the herd management system when he connects the PDA to his computer. In this way he records and analyses all his management information without using pen or paper.

Talking about the benefits of the technology Gavin says, “The main benefit of the PDA is that it saves time. I record information on it once and I can synchronise it with my computer later. It has been of great financial benefit to me. I have been able to improve my calving index because of the information I get for each cow at the touch of a button as I walk through the shed. I would not be without a PDA now.
The only down-side is that you need to be really careful how you look after the PDA on the farm as they can’t stand any amount of water.”

More recently Gavin has bought software for keeping field records such as fertiliser use, slurry applications and reseeding. This will give him paperless records for cross compliance purposes.