At Corafield Farms in Cora Lynn, Australia, third-generation dairy farmer Jeff McCauley is managing two distinctly different operations — a 900-cow rotary dairy and a 450-cow robotic facility equipped with six Lely robots.
His goal is clear — maximise efficiency, improve herd health and fertility, and prepare for the future.
And with the adoption of the Nedap collar system, he’s achieving exactly that.
“We chose Nedap collars because we’d had good reports and we knew they were gonna work both on our rotary dairy, and also with the Lely robots,” Jeff said.
“Nedap collars work with the robots perfectly — and that’s exceeded our expectations.”
In just three days, the team installed and activated 1000 collars across both sites.
The implementation was swift and smooth, allowing the technology to begin delivering value immediately.
Though Jeff uses the collars for multiple purposes, it was the heat detection capability that initially caught his attention — and it hasn’t disappointed.
“We’re just not missing any heat cows,” he said.
“It’s far more accurate than any human worker, including myself.”
As a result, Corafield Farms has seen major improvements in submission and conception rates.
“Definitely the best feature of the Nedap collars is the heat detection— just getting all those cows submitted for AI.”
With fewer missed heats, Jeff has reduced days in milk and increased overall milk production.
The accurate and timely data enables his team to act confidently and efficiently, directly impacting productivity and profitability.
While heat detection has been the standout, Jeff also appreciates the health monitoring features.
The collars track rumination and eating behaviour, providing early warnings about potential illnesses.
With this insight, the team can make informed treatment decisions — and sometimes even avoid treatment altogether.
“You can see that they’re actually improving within a day,” Jeff said.
“You don’t actually need to go ahead with treatment because you can see that the rumination and the health stuff’s improving.”
This not only saves time and resources, but also reduces the need for milk withdrawal and associated costs.
Using the Lely Horizon dashboard, Jeff has all the essential information in one place.
“You can go into cow information and everything’s on that one screen: heat detection data, activity data, rumination and eating minutes*.
“It’s easy to pinpoint issues that may arise and deal with them better with the knowledge of what’s actually happening.”
Perhaps one of the most transformative outcomes has been the operational flexibility the technology provides.
With no extra labour, Jeff has been able to manage the second farm site efficiently.
“The technology has enabled us to run the extra farm without any additional labour. It runs very labour efficient and the information helps us make better decisions.”
Beyond the productivity metrics, there’s a deeper value to the system.
“Having this technology on my farm helps set up the future generation for success.
“It gives you flexibility in your day-to-day work life, family life, and being able to increase production and profitability going into the future.”
“Having this technology on my farm helps set up the future generation for success.”
* eating minutes (eating time), is a key metric in cow monitoring systems used to assess the health, wellbeing, and reproductive status of dairy cows.