FARMER STORY
Trafford Watters
Cornwall, U.K.
Full-time estate agent and shareing a small flock of pedigree sheep and breeding ewes.
FARMER STORY
Abby Cook
South Cotswalds, U.K.
A full-time agribusiness consultant, I also run my own small flock of mainly Herdwick sheep.
Fresh Farmer
I had heard about iLivestock through farming friends and social media. Then, while helping a friend during lambing, I saw how easy it was to use - putting the lambs on the system and tracking the dams and sires. So, I got on the Fresh Farmer scheme.
“It cuts down on work and there are just so many benefits!”
Saving time
I save the most time on medication and movement records. Once you dose your animal, you add the information there and then, it’s a quick save and done. It’s hard to keep on top of medicine records when you've got multiple sheep; you don't know them by name or what they look like!
I have six pedigree tupping groups, with a different ram in each group. I have a lambs’ group too. If I’m worming the whole group, I just select the group, add the medicine, and it'll update the whole group’s records, rather than me individually adding information on each animal. And, if I’m out here on Christmas day trying to medicate a sheep that’s gone lame, I couldn’t possibly remember its number, what previous meds it had and when. Now, I just scan the sheep’s eTag and check its records.
Fly strike is common in some fields I use because we’re so close to water, and I note any animal that gets fly strike multiple times. Typically, I wouldn't keep them in the flock because it just adds more stress. Especially if I’m at work and someone calls to say, ‘your sheep’s got fly strike’. The last thing I want to do is leave work to deal with things like that.
Taking the stress out of audits
Recently, I had an audit from the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and usually, working long days, I would be panicked because I haven’t had the time to sort everything out. But, with iLivestock, the auditor looked through all my records on the app and everything went through. No problem at all. It's just great and one of the reasons why I got it.
“For speeding up the process of weighing and recording, I think I’d find it near impossible to do it without now!”
In terms of hardware, I’ve got the blue, handheld eTagReader, which is small and easy to carry. I’ve got weigh bars and a Rappa® weigh crate. iLivestock syncs with the Rappa® system and, with the tag reader linked up to the phone app, it all correlates and means I can easily scan, weigh and track each animal’s progress. I think an eTag Reader is a must. I did start using the app without one, but ever since I got a reader it's been so much better. For speeding up the process of weighing and recording, I think I’d find it near impossible to do it without now!
Tracking breeding traits
I’ve been using the app for around three years, and it’s also helping me track and trace breeding traits. I note favourable or unfavourable traits of each ewe, ram and lamb as I go. At the end of the year, once the lambs are weaned, I take stock and decide what I’m going to keep or cull. Having such easily available flock data, it helps with better decision-making.
“Getting all the animals on the system was very straightforward.”
“Getting all the animals on the system was very straightforward, and I didn’t have any onboarding as such. I did use another app prior to iLivestock, which I just didn't get on with, partly because the customer service wasn't great. With iLivestock, I can message through the phone app, and they’ll come back to me the same day. If there’s a glitch, they can also remotely access my information, which saves so much time sorting something out.
Great support
“Some months ago, I sold a ram after he tupped all my ewes. When it came to entering the data on the new lambs, I had an issue, because the ram obviously wasn't on my holding any more. I spoke to the support team, and they just went into the app and sorted it out within the day.
Lastly, I think my favourite feature is probably the medication logging for sure, because that is my biggest concern. Say I wasn’t checking my paperwork all the time, I may accidentally send off an animal that was within a withdrawal without realizing it. But now, just one look at the app means there’s no way I could do that, because there's a big red X against the sheep record. It’s a really forward-thinking system, and continually improved by user feedback. In the last couple of years I’ve noticed the app has really come on. I definitely recommend it.
“... with iLivestock, the APHA auditor looked through all my records on the app and everything went through. No problem at all.”
