Facility Focus: Could Automated Sort Gates be Your Next Employee?
Farm Journal’s Smart Farming Week is an annual week-long emphasis on innovation in agriculture. The goal is to encourage you to explore and prioritize the technology, tools and practices that will help you farm smarter. Innovation today ensures an efficient, productive and sustainable tomorrow.Sorting cows is certainly not one of the most enjoyable jobs on the farm. It’s time consuming, and, sometimes, downright frustrating. However, it’s a necessary task to ensure cows are firing on all cylinders from a health and reproductive standpoint.
But what if sorting cows didn’t have to be such a headache? According to Evan Platte, senior application specialist at Merck Animal Health, it’s a reality that more and more dairy farmers are leaning toward.
“Some of the main reasons for a producer to install sort gates is for efficiency purposes - labor efficiency, cow flow efficiency and really just being able to automate workflow,” Platte says. “Instead of spending time looking for animals, farmers can spend more of their time taking care of a specific cow’s needs.”
The time saving capabilities that sort gates offer are endless. They especially come in handy when it comes to breeding and caring for special needs animals, Platte adds.
“By automating the sorting process, breeders may only have to spend five minutes with an animal instead of sorting through an entire pen of cows. You know all of the animals the sort gate filtered out are the ones who actually need to be bred,” he says. “The same goes for sick cows. You don’t have to go on a wild goose chase trying to find them. Instead, they were automatically sorted for you, which gives you more time to give them quality care.”
According to Platte, that extra time saved can really add up for employees. Prior to his role with Merck, Platte served as a herd manager for several large dairies located throughout Michigan. Knowing the day-to-day grunt work of the job well, Platte says the sorting technology can be a real benefit when it comes to retaining labor.
“Think of the system as hiring an extra guy just to sort cows,” Platte says. “It lets your other employees get back to doing more enjoyable jobs and can save them from walking an extra 40,000 steps trying to find animals.”
Details to Deliberate
Before deciding to incorporate sort gate technology into your operation, Platte offers the following tips to consider:
Do Your Homework – “Not all sort gates are created equal,” Platte says. “Get in touch with a local sort gate dealer and work alongside them to figure out the needs of your operation. They should have an idea as to what system will work best with the technology that’s currently in place or new technology that you plan to bring in.”
Focus on Design – “Facility design can really make or break the overall performance of sort gates,” Platte adds. “It’s really important to get it right, especially if you are retrofitting a pre-existing facility.”
Get Everyone Involved – “Making the decision to bring in sort gate technology shouldn’t just be up to the owner,” Platte says. “In my opinion, the more people you involve, the better. Talk with your employees, your nutritionist and your veterinarian. They may bring ideas to the table that you may not have thought of. Reaching out to other farmers who have the technology and touring their operation is another great way to determine if [sort gates] are the right fit for your farm.”
For more on Smart Farming, read:
- Digester Success: It’s All in the Details
- Uniting Technology with the Youngest Herd Members on Your Farm
- He Started Out as a Milker Nearly 30 Years Ago. Now, He's the Manager and a Leader in Technology at Wisconsin's Largest Family-Owned Dairy
- Facility Focus: 4 Tips to Manage Ventilation During the Off-Season
- Beef-on-Dairy: Why Feedlots Crave This Important Information
