Farmers must embrace technology to complement their practices, not to replace them, says Waveney valley cattle farmer Helen Reeve.

Whether it's GPS, electronic ear tags or simply an app on your mobile phone, technology plays a big role in everyday life on the farm.

Technology in the farming world has certainly developed a lot over the last 25 years.

I have about 60 pedigree Dexter cattle at home. Cows are calving throughout the year, the females are retained to build the herd, and the males fattened for beef. The cattle are mostly grass-fed, either through grazing or through winter forage – hay and silage.

There are now a number of aids to help livestock farmers with their stock, but I think it’s important to use my stockperson skills in order to maintain the health and welfare of the animals.

Aids such as calving detectors, collars to pick up on heat detection and cow movement, and cameras are all great additions to assist with animal health – they can be a way of keeping an eye on your stock when you are not onsite.

It sometimes feels like I live with my cattle because of the hours my family and I spend with them, but even I have to eat and sleep away from the farm.

As good as these kinds of aids may be, they can’t replace the skills of a stockperson who can pick up on the welfare of their stock sometimes simply by looking at them - if they know their animals well-enough.

A calving aid is helpful to alert you when a cow is settling down to give birth, but it won’t tell you if the calf is coming backwards so using the technology can help you to check on the maternity cases.

As a small-scale producer, barriers to technology can be financial as well as having installation issues.

In the Waveney area, it can be tricky enough to get decent mobile phone signal, let alone connect a remote farm building for Wi-Fi to access some of the technology available on the market.

More than ever, farming practices are about a fine line of balance – the skills of a stockperson are invaluable and something that comes with lots of sweat and tears, but we need to embrace technology to complement our practices, not to replace them.

Helen Reeve, who runs the Waveney Dexter Beef herd near Harleston, will speak about how technological innovations must meet the needs of farm businesses at the 2024 Agri-TechE REAP conference at Newmarket Racecourse on November 6.