Gallagher moves to a new location at Fieldays

After nearly three decades welcoming farmers onto its iconic New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays site, Gallagher is on the move to a new location.

National sales manager Darrell Jones says the new site was designed from the ground up with farmers in mind.

“Visitors will find us at our new location, which they might know as the old LIC building at site D72. However, what they’ll discover upon arrival is something completely renovated.

“We’ve stripped the shed right back to the bones, re-clad it and installed a mezzanine floor. We’ve sound-proofed the space and given it a complete refit. It’s definitely not a shed anymore, it’s a purpose-designed, modern building,” says Jones.

Gallagher will have its entire sales team on-site during Fieldays, which provides farmers and others in the industry the opportunity to connect and learn.

“Gallagher is an innovative company. But we realise that innovation doesn’t mean anything if we can’t help farmers understand the benefits our innovations deliver for them and their businesses. So, that’s our team’s focus – to share our knowledge of animal management solutions and how Gallagher products help farmers cultivate maximum value on their properties,” explains Jones.

Jones says his team is excited about the launch of its new Electric Fence Dropper, which will be on display at Fieldays “We introduced the Electric Fence Dropper in February and demonstrated it to farmers at regional field days with great feedback.

“The Electric Fence Dropper basically allows you to extend the distance between fence posts by introducing the droppers, resulting in a much more cost-effective solution.

“A second benefit of the dropper is that it keeps the integrity of the fence. For instance, if you want to manage sheep through multiple wires, the dropper ensures the wires maintain the same distance across the span to prevent animals from pushing through the fence,” says Jones.

Gallagher will also introduce its MBS Energizer Range on display at Fieldays, giving farmers three options when it comes to powering up their units.

The MBS (mains, battery, solar) multi powered fence units provide stock control from between four to 32 hectares, delivering from one to eight joule of stored energy.

Jones says more ‘smarts’ have been added to the energizer range to increase reliability.

“Over the past year we’ve looked at the algorithms inside the energizers and made some changes. Our goal was to give farmers peace of mind that the solar powered units will keep working no matter what the weather.

“The new technology we’ve added allows the energizer to manage the battery a whole lot better. Higher quality battery management means the farmer can trust that stock remain under control no matter the weather conditions,” Jones outlines.

One of the most exciting displays at the Gallagher site will be a sneak preview of the company’s new e-Shepherd fencing solution which launches onto the market later this year.

“e-Shepherd is a virtual fencing product. How it works is you put a collar on your animals and set up a geofence using your computer and the animals stays within those virtual boundaries.

“You can train animals within three to four days using two stimuli. First, the collar gives the animal a sound warning when it nears the geofence boundary. Secondly, if the animal continues toward the geo-boundary, the collar issues a safe, small, sharp, shock. “e-Shepherd is especially cost-effective for broadacre farming, particularly large beef farms.

“It’s also a great solution for herding animals more efficiently over vast areas of land. With the collar, you can begin moving the geofencing boundaries closer and closer to the destination yard over several weeks which makes the final part of the herding process much easier,” explains Jones.

Fieldays theme this year is “cultivating value,” which is about demonstrating the journey of food products from concept to production, distribution and finally consumption. Jones says this year’s theme aligns perfectly to how Gallagher views its role in helping farmers.

“Gallagher products interact with animals through their growing cycles. We’re involved at the pasture and feed management level with our electric fencing products. And beyond that our weighing and EID solutions give farmers the ability to monitor individual animal growth rates, and then fully trace animal movements from paddock to plate by coupling our EID Tag Readers with NAIT integration.”

Visit the Gallagher team at site D72 at Fieldays, 12-15 June.