App for managing herd ‘can save four hours of paperwork per week’
“It’s great not having to sit in front of the computer after you’re done working on the farm,” said Mr Darmody, who farms a 200-head dairy herd and finishes 300 to 400 beef animals a year on his farm in Twomileborris, Co Tipperary.
“The big thing for me is having all the data on animal remedies to hand right there on the phone. I had a Bord Bia inspection recently and I didn’t have to go rummaging for paper on any injections I’d given an animal. I save about three to four hours a week during the busier times in paperwork.
“And I don’t have my wife giving out to me for being on the computer when I get back home. It has saved me a woeful amount of time; that’s the best way I can put it.”
Herdwatch was one of a number of companies promoting the benefits to businesses of using apps at an event entitled Mobile Cork, part of the monthly gatherings being hosted in Cork by the industry group Mobile Monday.
Speakers at last night’s gathering in Crane Lane, Cork, included Caroline Stephens, RTÉ Digital; Robert Bushnell, Enterprise Ireland; Enda Keane, Treemetrics; and Fabien Peyaud, co-founder of Herdwatch, an app launched in February by Farm Relief Services, a farmer-owned co-op in Tipperary.
Mr Peyaud, IT manager with Farm Relief Services, said: “Around 90% of Irish farmers don’t have any form of computerised herd management system. We looked at what was out there, and decided farmers would prefer to use their mobiles and smartphones rather than be tied to a PC.
“The first thing farmers wanted rid of was filling in the blue book to register calves. Herdwatch is approved by the Department of Agriculture — which took us about six months, but is well worth it now — so your existing herd data can be downloaded directly from the department.
“If you’re tagging an animal, it takes about 30 seconds. You can register a calf on your mobile, and two days later you’ll get your papers in the post from the department. You can log when you dose an animal, record remedies as they happen, manage your breeding and all your milk withdrawals.”
The group is in talks with Defra, the equivalent UK department, to launch Herdwatch in Britain. Next markets up are likely to be France and New Zealand.
Herdwatch now has around 250 paid-up farmers, with many more trialling the product. It aims to have several thousand clients by the end of 2015.
Among the current users is Fr Richard, Abbot and farm manager of the herd at Mount St Joseph Abbey in Roscrea, Co Tipperary.
Farm Relief Services is entering all dairy and beef farmers who pay the €99 subscription for Herdwatch into a draw to win an iPad. Contact Farm Relief Services offices or visit herdwatch.ie.
