Save time and money with state-of-the-art farming technology
Monday, 22 August, 2022
As National Field Sales Manager, Mark Sheridan spends his days trying to make every hour of a farmer’s day more profitable. He does it through technology. Mark explains. “Superficially, you could say that I sell technology and equipment to farmers. Fencing systems, weighing devices, animal management and monitoring apps. But what I really do is save farmers time. More specifically, I drastically reduce the time it takes for farmers to do certain tasks so they can do more things that earn them money.
“Take fencing as an example. In the Taranaki, many farmers still use old energizers to power-up their fences. That’s fine, except when the voltage drops somewhere and the animals escape into a no-go zone. The first a farmer learns about this is when he discovers his animals grazing the wrong paddock. That’s the first time-consuming problem they need to fix. The next problem is finding where the shortage occurred. The average Taranaki farm is 250 acres, and a farmer might have to scour most of it to find the electrical issue. I’ve known farmers who have spent two days looking. If time is money, I can tell you there’s no money made in doing that!”
This is precisely where the right technology makes the time-saving difference. Mark outlines how Gallagher’s new generation of energizers can help. “Our new energizers do two very important things. First, they divide a farm’s fencing system into six blocks, which enables each sector to be monitored separately. Secondly, because Gallagher’s energizers are Wi-Fi enabled, they communicate directly to the farmer’s phone through our monitoring app. The second a voltage problem occurs, the app alerts the farmer: ‘Voltage drop in Sector 3’. All a farmer needs to do is send someone to that sector to find the problem. The animals don’t have the chance to break out. Think about the hours saved. That’s time they can spend doing something productive.”
The hesitant generation
Here’s where Mark’s job gets tricky. The average age of a New Zealand farmer is 56, but in the Taranaki it’s higher. And while most farmers love the time-saving idea of Gallagher’s fencing system, they’re sometimes hesitant about the technology. Having spoken to many of them, Mark understands the reluctance.
“Some farmers are a little apprehensive about technology. They really want the upsides of the equipment, but they’re not confident they’ll be able to pick it up and run with it. But if a farmer can run his smartphone, he can easily use our fencing app. Our app works like every other app he’s already got on his phone. Gallagher designed it that way on purpose. All we need to do is get the fencing system set up properly at the start.”
Use tech-savy youngsters
Learning new technology can be uncomfortable; unfamiliar things are at first. Mark believes that younger workers can be extremely useful at the early set-up phase. They’ve grown up with technology and find it easy to understand and operate new apps and systems.
“It’s second nature to young people. When I show them how the fencing app works and how to run it for the specifics of their farm, they get it within seconds. Honestly, some of them can run it better than me! So, I counsel farmers to get their workers involved from the outset. Once the fencing system is in place, it operates on the farmer’s phone. He gets a *DING*, opens the app, sees the problem and sector, then sends a worker out to fix it. Couldn’t be easier. I know farmers that simply ring a worker and ask, ‘Did you just get a fencing alert?’ The young person will often respond, ‘Yep, we’re already heading over there to sort it out.’ That’s what I meant when I said my job isn’t selling technology. My job is saving farmers time. They have enough on their plates already. I’m here to make life easier for Taranaki farmers.”