Smart Farming with Tom Marsh

Eweleaze Dairy is an organic dairy farm located in Dorchester, run by second generation dairy farmer Tom Marsh. Home to a herd of 350 dairy cows, the farm produces high quality organic milk. This milk is sold directly to customers through an on-site vending machine, alongside a range of delicious, flavoured milkshakes and farm made ice cream.

On a recent visit to Eweleaze Dairy, we spoke with Tom Marsh about the Tru-Test Active Collar system, which he installed in the summer of 2024. We were interested to find out whether the system’s heat and health monitoring features had helped improve calving outcomes during the autumn 2024 season, boosted conception rates, and supported labour efficiency on the farm.

Tom shared how the system has influenced daily operations at Eweleaze Dairy, particularly during the busy calving period. He described how the technology has provided both peace of mind and practical support for his team:

“Having a system has made a huge difference in reassuring me and my team that the job we are doing with the cows is right. We use the Datamars heat detection during our Autumn calving period and have seen a significant increase in our submission rate and overall conception rate.

One of the greatest positives for the system during the winter, whilst we are doing our evening checks, is being able to free up our skilled labour and my own time and allow less skilled workers to learn how to check for bulling and sick cows whilst I can be re-assured that nothing is missed as the system is always picking up anything that I really need to know.”

With the Tru-Test heat and health monitoring system, alongside an easy-to-use online app that provides real time data access, we asked Tom how this technology has helped him manage the herd more effectively and make informed decisions.

“The system is presenting us with accurate and reliable data which is incredibly simple to read and translate into management decisions for me and my team.

We currently have 289 animals in calf, out of 350 in the herd. With 10% of cows now moved to a spring block.

Of the herd, 9% not pregnant (22 cows) are open. Out of these I would keep 5% of the 9% but gives option to go back through health and fertility issues by using the system to allow them to get added to the spring block. The decision to calve the extra 10% in spring is backed up by improvements in the autumn block who are giving 5 litres more this year than last year. The spring block helps to improve milk quality and levels throughout the year to assist with the vending machine, which is an important part of our business. The 10% spring calvers are some of the better cows and are above average or less than 2^nd lactation so this is important to allow them to fit in with a more flexible herd.”

Tom was also asked whether there had been any noticeable labour savings or time efficiencies since introducing the system, particularly in tasks that are no longer necessary.

“We use to spend 1 ½ hours per day reading scratch cards which is no longer required between myself and my head herdsman. This is now 10 minutes before milking which is a significant saving on farm labour.”

When asked what impact the automatic health alerts have had on day-to-day management decisions, Tom shared the following:

“The health alerts have made working with the cows much simpler as we now have an insight into health data on a subclinical level and are able to make management decisions before it is too late. I was sceptical at first, but after having lost a favourite cow who had come up on the list but not been checked, we now check all cows that come up on the health alert list.

For example, my wife’s pet cow had always been difficult to get in calf, with bad feet and high cell count, we finally managed to get her in calf. We had a health alert to say she had an expected pregnancy loss in the repro issues list. We wouldn’t have noticed that with this animal until a lot later on without the system, so this saved us days open and the potential for this cow to have gone missed thinking she was still pregnant.”