Smedley Station manager- Rob Evans.
Running a 5660ha dry stock operation is a big ask at the best of times, but add in a teaching role and it can prove a
juggling act which Smedley Station manager Rob Evans is more than up for.
Rob admits having a young crew of cadets to oversee helps him stay sharp, and has also encouraged him to look harder at
the new technology out there that young cadets will be engaging with in their farming careers.
This includes FarmIQ, and for the past two years Smedley has been gradually adopting many of the features FarmIQ offers
into its day to day operations, and for bigger picture planning during the season.
Initially when he started using FarmIQ Rob had been inputting stock numbers and feed budget data to give himself and
staff a more up to date picture of feed supply-demand. This enabled him to share potential options with staff via the
computer or cell phone. It has also meant he can get a real time picture across the station’s four blocks.
In the past 18 months, Rob has moved use of FarmIQ along, picking up many of its additional functions as he and staff
have become more confident using it.
“We are using the planning and recording tools for cropping, fertiliser and chemical use across the four blocks, and
bringing in the EID data we have on sheep. There is no point in having an EID animal running around out there and not
using that data- when we are recording it anyway, we may as well put it into the system where we can track it.”
He says it has taken the guess work out of decision making, and he can easily bring his managers in on that decision,
sharing the data on their smartphones. Throttling up or down on feed levels can be determined against recorded weight
gain rates, conserving feed where necessary if those gains are already achieved.
He has also adopted the popular Health and Safety facility within FarmIQ, providing peace of mind about staff and
contractors’ locations across the properties at any given time.
“Once someone has come on, I can link in the rest of the staff to know who is on the property.”
With multiple blocks and stock types, FarmIQ has made keeping track of animal health simpler, with an auditable trail of
reports generated, reducing compliance burden, while a shared diary system ensures no-one misses important dates on the
animal health calendar.
“This year has been a bit of a difficult one with Covid, but we are continually working on it, and have had good support
from Garth and his team at FarmIQ – it’s a good system and we have got a lot out of it in a short time,” he says.