Litchfield Dairy ‘Kariana’, Mayrung, NSW Australia
The Litchfield family’s investment in technology from Allflex Livestock Intelligence is paying dividends within their southern NSW-based dairy farming operation.
Ian and Karen Litchfield purchased the 182-hectare Kariana in 2000, and over the years they’ve purchased three other blocks. Together with their daughter Amy and son-in-law Jack, the Litchfield’s milk 800 Holstein cows each year, with their flat milk supply sold into the year-round milk markets.
“We researched other companies, but the ease of operating the Allflex program is what sold us on going with them. With large herds you can’t see or know every cow but with Heatime Pro+ we can quickly and easily have information on hand about every cow to allow individual monitoring and decision making.”
Karen Litchfield, Co-Owner
At a Glance
- Company: Litchfield Dairy, ‘Kariana’
- Location: Mayrung, New South Wales, Australia
- Herd Size: 950 cows with 800 being Holstein milking cows
Summary
Along with milk meters and conductivity alarms in their milking system, the Allflex monitoring collars takes any guesswork out of identifying sick cows and allows for quick and more effective veterinary treatments. The software is also great for singling out cows with fertility issues, allowing the Litchfield’s to cull strategically to improve their herd efficiency.
The family are also using the Allflex Tissue Sampling Unit (TSU), which is helping them quickly and easily identify A2 cows in their herd. “We’re also looking forward to utilising the Allflex Livestock Intelligence system upgrades on the horizon, particularly the bull fertility program,” said Karen.