Since its inception in 2012, Collins Agri has been helping dairy farmers become more efficient by providing a superb variety of high-quality dairy products, incorporating milking parlours (ATL), dairy hygiene solutions (Cotswold) and animal health monitoring systems (HerdInsights). We caught up with marketing manager Cora Harty to learn more about the outstanding products and services delivered by this exceptional operation.
Ultimately, the products supplied by Collins Agri have the capacity to save dairy farmers money by improving the inherent efficiencies of their enterprises. A more efficient dairy business will always be a more productive and profitable one…
“There’s more technology coming on stream in the dairy sector in particular and farmers are always looking for solutions that will provide them with more efficiencies in terms of both costs and labour,” says Cora Harty, head of marketing. “Farmers are looking to expand their herd sizes but this also means increased costs. To counter this, the companies we deal with – ATL, HerdInsights and Cotswold – are providing the technology to increase cost efficiencies and labour-saving efficiencies.”
ATL Agricultural Technology Ltd., for example, are award-winning designers and manufacturers of innovative milking parlour equipment, whose products include parlours, cluster removers, milk meters, in-parlour and out-of-parlour feeders, parlour automatic identification and automatic drafting as well as variable speed pumps, automatic plant washers, etc.
HerdInsights, meanwhile, are assisting dairy farmers with considerable savings in terms of time, cost and animal health – all areas in which Collins Agri are reporting significant expansion. By using multi metric analysis, their cloud-based ‘Smart Collar’ – continuously monitors each individual cows’ behavioural patterns and issues alerts on animal health and fertility directly to the farmer’s phone – improving the efficiency of farm breeding programs and reducing healthcare costs through early illness detection, making it the most accurate heat detection product on the market today.
The leading supplier of dairy hygiene products worldwide, Cotswold Dairy Equipment develops and manufactures a comprehensive range of dairy hygiene products including teat sprayers, water heaters and cluster flush systems. Their milking parlour milk management solutions facilitate the very highest hygienic standards, resulting in obvious benefits to dairy farmers.
Never before has automation made more sense in agriculture in Ireland. “Farmers need to control their labour costs and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to both source and pay for labour,” Cora continues. “The companies we represent are all focussed on efficiencies.
“Dairy hygiene is massive now and Cotswold are producing significant results in terms of reducing cell counts, which increases milk bonuses and has a positive effect on the farmer’s bottom line – they have solutions in place on dairy farms worldwide and are achieving fantastic results with their cluster flush systems.
“ATL allow us to provide either complete modular systems or individual parts – from a complete brand-new automated system on a greenfield site to just a drafting system, pump system or cluster removers, so that the farmer can expand in accordance with their means.
“The HerdInsights solution is a smart collar which goes on the cow and allows the farmer to monitor both for breeding and health. The farmer can look at reports on their phone or laptop and can conveniently see how the cow is performing. It has significant health benefits as well as breeding benefits as health problems will be detected early. For example one of our clients bought the system specifically to save time during breeding season, as they were going from a long calving period straight into monitoring for breeding, they received a health alert and on noticing a reduction on milk yields investigated further, the problem was sourced and treated immediately and the cow was back milking without that alert she would have been dried out over the summer if not even culled.”
One might hastily assume that farmers would be nervous or reluctant about embracing this sort of technology but Cora is quick to point out that the opposite is in fact the case: “They are taking this technology on board and embracing it,” she confirms. “ to what one might assume, farmers are not afraid to use their smartphones. We have found the complete opposite, especially in the last 18 months to two years, because they are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of improving their cost and labour efficiencies and achieving a better work / life balance. Farmers have families and interests outside of work, too, and they want to strike that happy balance.
“They are extremely clued in and that actually applies across all age groups, not just to young farmers. They are recognising that they need to get this technology on board and bring in these efficiencies.”
Collins Agri have very quickly built a stellar reputation for supplying high-quality products with the support of a superb back-up service, ensuring that they can provide reliable, efficient and cost-effective solutions to the Irish dairy community. “The companies we deal with all have excellent reputations for their back-up service and we have professional, experienced and trained technicians here to provide the prompt and expert level of back-up expected.”
Fronted by husband and wife team, Liam and Hannah Collins, Collins Agri is ideally located in the Cork / Limerick / Tipp dairy heartland but provides its solutions to farmers nationwide. “Business is expanding year on year and we enjoyed very strong growth during the course of 2017. High milk prices are a driver of that as farmers will always invest money back into their businesses when they are getting better prices.”
Looking to the future, Cora says Collins Agri will continue to source and supply solutions that allow dairy farmers to access untapped efficiencies: “We’ll always look for new solutions – as will the farmer – and our existing agencies are really on the ball when it comes to introducing new technology. Cotswold is the best in hygiene; for parlours, ATL have it covered; HerdInsights is the most advanced heat detection and animal health monitoring system on the market. The plan is to continue to grow hand in hand with those companies.”
Collins Agri Dairy Solutions,
Ashford,
Ballybrown,
Clarina,
County Limerick.
Tel: 087 6932211
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.collinsagri.com
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 1, February 2018
