Media.
Darcy & Clancy McAlpine
(Image by CheekyMac Productions)
Article - By Rabobank Australia
Innovation saving precious time and money
There are few things worth more than a thriving business, but for dairy farmer Darcy McAlpine, his time is just as valuable as his bottom line. And the Victorian is fast clawing back precious hours thanks to state-of-the-art ‘AEI SmartBoxes’ recently installed across the family-run operation – the physical labour savings proving just as significant as the financial savings.
“Money is good, but time is our most precious resource in dairy, so we’re always looking at ways to ‘buy’ ourselves a few extra hours,” Darcy said.
Working together with brother Clancy and father Paul, the family recently connected 4 ‘AEI SmartBoxes’ to pumps and irrigators which read and forecast the electricity markets’ ‘live-pricing’, allowing for automated pumping during the cheapest predicted pricing timeframe during a 24-hour period.
“You just don’t realise how much time you spend during the day checking pumps are still running or flicking them on and off, now it’s all on an app on my phone, and I have around four extra hours in my day to do jobs I otherwise didn’t get a chance to do.”
“Trudging out in the dark, cold night to turn on pumps after dinner was wearing a bit thin, and it would always be a race after milking to get the pump on by 8am, but now it’s all done automatically and it’s an enormous weight off my shoulders…………