Grass SAT, an innovative, new grass management service has been launched by Rezatec, a geospatial data analytics company, to provide dairy farmers with automated daily updates of grass cover per paddock, and other features, to optimise grazing management decisions throughout the year.
Increasingly, dairy farmers are looking for new ways to save time, cuts costs and improve grass management activities. Currently, many farmers rely on manual methods, for example visual assessment or using a plate meter, which can be time intensive and require frequent manual updates to provide current and accurate estimates of grass cover.
Grass SAT, is an online grass management service for dairy farmers to optimise rotational grazing across their farms. Using a comprehensive grass growth model fed with regular analytics derived from satellite imagery, farmers are presented with a daily update of grass cover per paddock. The metrics are visualised in a secure portal supported with a grazing wedge, sorting grass cover from highest to lowest, as well as valuable decision support information such as number of grazing days per paddock and a colour-coded map of the farm presenting volumes and distribution of grass available.
The service is very easy to use and allows farmers to initially draw their paddocks in a digital map and add herd information before they are presented with their wedge and daily grass cover measurements. Farmers then update the portal with paddock activities, such as grazing or a cutting, and these feed into the model and revaluate the grass cover analytics.
John Brocklehurst, Dairy Farmer, Hilltop Farm, commented, “Utilising as much grazed grass as possible is a top priority KPI for our business and I hope by using Grass SAT it will provide me with more frequent grass measurements of the whole farm without having to walk it. The data is already informing my day to day grazing management and moving forward I hope to identify areas of the farm that are less productive and improve them as well as allocating grass to the cows more efficiently.”
Farmers can also pull out paddocks for silage production as well as run multiple wedges if required and new features, including an App, will be available over the coming months.
Philip Briscoe, Chief Operating Officer, Rezatec explained, “We have been developing this product for a few years now and are confident it will make farmers lives much easier. With an initial discounted trial period of two months, farmers can also be confident of the time the service can save them simply by providing an automated daily update of grass cover.”
