Robbie discusses the new Herd Advance Stockman system

He lives with his wife Kirsty at Cluny Farm which takes in 1100 acres near the town of Forres in Moray. Keen to make more data-led decisions on his finishing stock, he has installed the Stockman – an automatic, precision performance monitor – from Herd Advance.

An upland unit, Cluny is primarily a livestock farm with some 180 head of Simmental and Salers cows and 700 Mule ewes with all progeny finished on-farm. Around 170 acres of barley is grown and used as feed in the fattening operation.

The Stockman system is a weigh crate linked to a water trough that all cattle must pass through every time they drink. It records identification, weight of each animal, their water intake and, in fattening operations like his, the automatic drafting of animals to separate pens, by pre-set criteria such as weight, breed, or age.

Robbie Newlands lives with his wife Kirsty at Cluny Farm

It is all managed by the easy-to-use app.

“The older building where I fatten heifers is not ideally set up for handling equipment or a cattle race, but the Stockman was perfect for sitting in an otherwise unused part of the steading. It was just a case of diverting the water supply and attaching cattle hurdles to guide the stock to and from the crate.

“The heifers quickly adapted to going there for a drink and the change in their behaviour has been remarkable – normally asking an animal to walk into an enclosed unit like a crush instantly creates high stress levels, but they have become so used to the several-times-a-day process that we can stand by the Stockman now and they come and go without a second thought,” Robbie commented.

Jilly Duncan Grant, CEO at Herd Advance said: “As cattle farmers, we experience the same daily challenges that our customers face. The motivation to develop our technology arose from the shortage of employable labour willing to work with cattle, their lack of necessary skills, and concerns about safety.

“My previous roles in data-driven industries made me aware of the significant opportunities available in the beef sector to enhance production efficiencies, profitability and animal welfare through real-time monitoring that supports decision-making. We just had to develop a practical solution to deliver this and that’s where Stockman was born.

“The simple measures of weight, water intake and temperature provide a strong correlation to health, stress and profitability of the herd, and can be utilised by both suckler and finisher units, across large and small-scale enterprises.”

Robbie sells all fat stock through ABP at Perth. Previously all cattle were selected by eye for going to the abattoir.

Now it’s a case of pre-setting selection criteria on the Herd Advance app around 24 hours before the lorry is due then, as the heifers at the target weight come for a drink, they are automatically diverted to a holding pen instead of back to the main pen. By the end of the day there might be 10 animals at ideal weights ready to go, with no handling or stress on the animals or the farmers.

Robbie added: “Kirsty used to have to work the gate for the ones I was picking out – it was a part of the job she really didn’t like and it was usually a bit of a rodeo and no doubt a risky job to do. Not only does the Stockman eliminate the need for handling the beasts but it also means that we’re only sending them at accurate weights, which improves our profitability. For example, every heifer that is 10kg heavier might increase profits by £5000 over the course of the year.”

He added that a knock-on benefit could be improved meat-eating quality, when stress is one of the biggest factors affecting tenderness. Therefore, the more that can be done to decrease any stress before the journey to the abattoir has to be a good thing, Robbie added.

He also foresees other benefits that the system could bring to the management of the cattle and the wider business.

“Efficiencies in the beef sector could be improved massively by using systems like this. The more information you have, the more inclined you are to pick cattle at the right point and weights that the market is demanding. With temperature sensors now available for the Stockman too, a beast that is showing early signs of illness could be picked up straight away and not only reduce antibiotic use in the sector, but also animal losses too.

“For other operations there could be real advantages, such as cattle being fattened at grass. To have something like this in the field that negates the need for gathering in or weighing would be such a time saver – something that every farmer could do with more of. To have more data on any kind of operation, whether it’s fattening, store or breeding cattle – weights and feed efficiency are hot topics just now.”

By just going for a drink, the volume of valuable data that the Stockman is capable of gathering from each animal is ‘staggering’ Robbie said. Furthermore, the system allows farmers the opportunity to meet a multitude of market demands, without human input to capture it.