Reducing Farm paperwork: a Woman’s view
Yvonne is originally from Holland and knowingly took on the role of “Minister for paperwork” when she married Jim over 16 years ago. They now milk 75 spring calving cows and finish most of the male cattle. They have three daughters and one son and also run a riding school, so time is a very rare commodity in the Hoban household.
The Bord Bia man was impressed
“The fact that you can record remedies on the spot for Bord Bia takes a load off my mind. It gets rid of any backlog of paperwork and wasted time filling in the blanks as all the information is right there and more importantly the Bord Bia man was very impressed”, said Yvonne.
Movement Certs right there and then
Selling and moving cattle farm to farm used to require a lot of paperwork, but Yvonne tells us this has all changed with Herdwatch: “Selling calves was so easy this year because as soon as a buyer had picked out the calves they wanted, I applied for their Movements Certs there and then through the App. The Movement Certs are emailed instantly from the Department and the buyer can leave with the animals.”
Animal history on tap
Yvonne added: “We finish a lot of our male animals, so being able to quickly check when they are coming up to 30 months is very important. In Herdwatch, we can separate them based on their age or whether they are still in a withdrawal period. If there is a sick or lame cow, Jim or I can quickly check and see if she has been treated for the same thing before and make an informed decision. We can see the individual animal’s history with a tap, even with no internet access.”
