Bruce Glasgow of Korumburra is an early adopter of Halter technology, after it was approved by the Victorian government for use on dairy farms in late February.
Photo by
Jeanette Severs
In late February this year, the Victorian government approved the use of virtual herding and fencing technology, specifically Halter trademarked collars, for dairy and beef cattle.
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Other technology companies are still to manage the process of verification and approval.
Halter and the Victorian government supported an animal ethics approved trial in 2024-2025 at Ellinbank SmartFarm in Gippsland, Victoria.
Gippsland dairy farmers are on board, after viewing and hearing the results of the successful trial of the technology at Ellinbank SmartFarm.
Ross Anderson, from Dennison, visited Ellinbank SmartFarm to view the how the Halter technology was used, and has consequently adopted it on his own dairy farm.
Photo by
Jeanette Severs
Ross Anderson at Dennison and Bruce Glasgow at Korumburra are early adopters of the Halter technology on their farms, with each dairy farmer putting collars on their cows in March.
At a recent technology demonstration day at Nambrok, also in Gippsland, an Ellinbank researcher revealed the SmartFarm research team has applied to the Victorian government for funding to conduct additional trials using Halter collars.
Dr Meaghan Grumley, Ellinbank SmartFarm research scientist, at a recent technology discussion day at Nambrok, hosted by GippsDairy.
Photo by
Jeanette Severs
Dr Meaghan Douglas, lead research scientist at Ellinbank’s dairy research farm, was the project lead and public face for the Victorian government’s demonstration and analysis of virtual fencing technology.
If the Victorian government approves a new round of project funding, it could see the entire Ellinbank milking herd outfitted with Halter collars.
A Halter collar approved for use on Victoria’s dairy cows, to enable virtual grazing and herding.
Photo by
Jeanette Severs
There is potential for all projects across the 230-acre Ellinbank SmartFarm to be integrated with Halter technology.
For Meaghan’s team in particular, the funding would enable additional research into remote animal management for small herds.
Gippsland dairy farmers attended a recent technology demonstration and discussion day on farm at Nambrok, organised by GippsDairy.
Photo by
Jeanette Severs
“We can’t look at aspects of rumination for reproduction and fertility, because you need thousands of cows for those studies, and we don’t have those numbers at Ellinbank,” Meaghan said.
“So you can’t run an actual fertility study.
“But we can definitely study the rumination side of animal management.
“Within the Measuring and Enhancing Nutrient Intake project that myself and colleague [Dr] Marlie Wright are working on, we look at a lot of ruminant nutrition, we look at pasture allocation.
“So we would be quite interested in using the [virtual herding and fencing] tech in that research.”
In pasture allocation research at Ellinbank, the team is studying how cows that come late to milking spend more time off pasture, which affects their production – less grazing time equals less pasture intake equals less production.
Using virtual grazing technology enables farmers to allocate late milked cows to fresh pasture, by reserving pasture for the tail end of the herd.
Meaghan said the difference in production could vary by 11 litres.
“What we started doing at Ellinbank were 11 o’clock break-to-break shifts,” Meaghan said.
“So we would give the girls 50 per cent of their allocation up to 11 o’clock, and then move them and give them that extra pasture.
There is potential for all research projects across the Ellinbank SmartFarm to be integrated with Halter technology, if further funding is allocated by the Victorian government.
Photo by
Jeanette Severs
“In milking order and cows going back to pasture, you can give those girls that get back to the paddock later, that extra bit of grass.
“We also started transitioning to paddock to paddock shifts. We grazed the cows for an hour, an hour and a half, then moved them to a different paddock.
“But we don’t need to give three quarters of the paddock to properly utilise that. You can given them the next quarter, the next morning, give them two hours to graze that, and then move them to another paddock – with very minimal labour.”
The Ellinbank team also used the Halter collars to assist with heat identification during the herd’s joining period, in the initial nine-month research period in 2024-2025.
“We got a 75 per cent in-calf rate and a 90 per cent overall in-calf rate,” Meaghan said.
“We really trusted the technology with showing us that the cows were on heat.”
Meaghan advised turning off the heat notification aspect of the smartphone app at night.
“Waking up at 2am because one of the girls is on heat is not really ideal. You still have all that information on the phone app the next morning, and on the web app as well,” she said.
The remainder of the herd without Halter collars were managed for joining as usual.
Meaghan also said the Halter technology identified health concerns earlier in the cows wearing the collars, than those in the conventional herd.
“We found we were getting health notifications before you could see the cows were sick, and the collars would pick that up,” she said.
That enabled veterinary intervention sooner and treatment could be enabled quicker.
Meaghan said there was potential for research using virtual herding and grazing technology across many projects at Ellinbank.
“Each project leader at Ellinbank will choose whether or not they want to explore a specific Halter question or do they just use the tech to manage the cows,” Meaghan said.
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