Harper Adams University Farm are making feed management easy
A specialist higher education institution for the studies of agriculture and farming, Harper Adams University have invested significantly in their farming facilities. The unit operates commercially but also undertakes research to help develop advanced technologies to increase productivity and sustainability in UK agriculture. In recent years the University has expanded the dairy and pig units and created a food research centre and on-farm teaching hub. Livestock include 390 dairy cows and 280 followers, 230 sows, two sheep flocks and an intensive beef unit.
The different units are managed individually, the Beef & Sheep Unit commercially finish beef, they also undertake trials and research and so running the unit as efficiently as possible is very important for them. In early 2022 whilst looking at the efficiency of the unit it was decided to invest in a new silo for biosecure storage of feed, the team also included FeedAlert silo monitoring.
At the time of the silo order Harper opted for a two load-cell system for inventory control. Load cells sit under the feet of the silo leg, two cells on a four-leg silo reduces the hardware cost and is ideal for inventory control, providing ~ 96% accuracy, load cells can also be utilised for precision monitoring of silo data, for this a cell is required under each leg of the silo.
The silo weight is displayed locally to the silo, the system is also SIM enabled so data can be sent securely via the cloud to be viewed remotely via an App or Portal for easier silo management 24/7.
“Being able to monitor the feed levels in the silo definitely helps the unit to be more efficient, and importantly we never run out of feed”
Emily Upton, Ruminant Technician at the unit told us
‘Being able to monitor the feed levels in the silo definitely helps the unit to be more efficient, and importantly we never run out of feed which when we’re undertaking trials is essential. The Beef unit are now increasing the storage capacity with two new silos, of course, these will also include silo monitoring.’ Emily continued ‘It makes feed management so easy, just looking at the App to see usage and re-ordering.
Asset investment has to be justified and having peace of mind that they can order the right amount of feed just in time eliminating any hassle of over orders but the fact that they can make informed decisions, so they won’t run out of feed is invaluable, hence the further investment!
Silo monitoring is a superb tool for industry efficiency, the FeedAlert range now includes a low-cost inventory control solution which is suitable for all manufacturers’makes of silo, not just Collinson. Capture and Envision are strain gauge systems which can be quickly and easily installed on the silo leg retrospectively. With a choice of hardware users can mix and match to suit requirements and budget, whilst offering a slightly reduced accuracy at ~95% of capacity the system is being used successfully to monitor fast approaching 1000 UK silos.
