Kym Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): I'm Kym Harrison. I own and run Oakwood Dairy here with Torie Harrison, my daughter. It's a 245-acre farm that's pasture-based, in the beautiful Mount Kilcoy Valley, South East Queensland.
We've been farming here for 20+ years, and we're up to a herd average of about 250 cows milking.
In the 20 years that we have been farming here, we've adopted a lot of new AgTech. And our latest one is our collar monitoring program for our cows.
Torie Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): We've installed over 300 collars here at the dairy, and it's a device that is worn around the cow's neck like a pedometer. It measures how much they walk and how much time they spend eating each day.
It captures the data on the cow 24/7, and as they come back to the dairy, it feeds into the aerial that can read up to 500 metres away. Analysing that data it can indicate how healthy they are and whether they're in oestrus for breeding.
Kym Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): Before we had the collars, we used to have to manually just check on the herd. We would go out and check to see how the health was, how the reproduction was. Then, after implementing the collars, it just picks it up so much quicker and so much easier.
We can see the cows are becoming ill, and then we can treat them before they become really ill. All-round general health keeps our cows healthy and happy, so they produce good, clean milk for us—good quality milk.
Torie Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): This technology has improved our timing of artificial insemination for the cows. It's saved us time in staff training as well. It's a lot easier for them to look at the computer or the app on the phone and know that green's good to go, and red's no go.
We've been adopting technology here on the farm for the entire 20 years that we've owned it, and it's always about improving efficiency, minimising workloads, and increasing productivity. I've got to stay on top of the ball and keep the farm producing.
Letisha Johnson (EastAUSmilk): My name is Letisha Johnson. I'm a Project Officer for EastAUSmilk. We’re an advocacy body for dairy in Queensland and New South Wales.
I think adopting AgTech is really important for the dairy industry. Obviously, everything's moving forward in that area, and I think we need to keep up with the times on it.
Torie Harrison (Oakwood Dairy): Adopting AgTech here on the farm has helped the younger generations get involved, whether it's in the irrigation, feeding the cows, or monitoring their health and behaviour. It's been super positive, and we look to do more in the future.
Last updated: 10 Dec 2025