Joining is one of the busiest, highest stakes stretches of the whole Australian farming calendar. You're making fast calls on which cows to inseminate, when to do it, which semen to use and often with a yard full of cows and not enough hours in the day. This season, Halter's made some real changes to help you get through joining day with a lot more clarity, more accuracy and a lot less second guessing.
Every cow wearing a Halter collar is being watched around the clock. The collar tracks her movement and resting behaviour, then compares it to her own, her mob and the wider farm, using that to spot a heat before you'd catch it yourself. Halter rebuilt the model behind the alerts and the whole On Heat experience around one goal: helping you make faster and more confident calls on the busiest day of the year.
Here's what's new, and why it matters on your farm.
Product updates in the app
For a lot of Australian farmers running split or year-round calving, joining is a rolling job that never really stops, with different mobs at different stages and cows moving in and out of active joining status through the year. Being able to understand which cows are going on heat, no longer second guessing a tag in the ear, and putting more trust in the list you're working with can make a huge impact. Now with the new On Heat list you can see optimal insemination timing, last heat, calving date, heats since calving, number of AIs and whether a cow's return is shorter or longer than usual. All the relevant information is at your fingertips.
Once a cow is alerted, Halter shows a clear window for when to inseminate, built from data on when conception is most likely after a heat. It's there to help back your call, but not make the decision for you. It's making sure you've got the clearest possible picture of when to act, so you and your breeding plan stay in charge of the outcome.
Patrick Anderson from Kings Veldt Genetic in Victoria's South Gippsland, runs 280 cows and says, "being able to have 24/7 data, not just when they come back in reach of the dairy, is really enabling the accuracy around heats, especially around timing. We join morning and night, use a bit of sexed semen and want to get that timing correct, and what we've found thus far, if Halter says they're on heat, they're definitely on heat."
Another update is around season inclusion, which matters most for farms running split calving, where the joining mob is never quite static. You now choose exactly which cows are counted when a season is set up, and get prompted whenever a new cow is tagged onto the farm mid mating. If a cow leaves the farm partway through, she stays counted as "Unassigned" rather than dropping out and quietly flattering your numbers. That means your submission rate and in-calf rate reflect the cows that were part of mating, not an edited version of it.
It doesn't just stop there
The new updates don't just work at joining, but they make planning all seasons that much easier. A few other things worth knowing:
- Halter gives you live in season metrics; things like cycling rate, submission rate, non return rate and estimated in calf rate, update from pre-mating onwards so you get an early read on how the season's tracking, not just a report card at the end.
- The whole team sees the same picture. Feeding, cycling status and mating progress are visible to everyone on-farm, so decisions don't rest on one person holding all the context in their head.
- You get more than data. You get the tools to act on it. Virtual fencing, easy multi mob management and feed allocation all improve your farming management throughout the year.
- Data collection runs 24/7. Less time picking heats on the platform or the stand, more time on the decisions that actually move the needle, with fewer people needed to do it.
None of that depends on your calving pattern. Whether you're seasonal, split or year round, it's why farmers on Halter tend to describe joining as less stressful, not because the pressure disappears, but because they're not carrying it with a stretched team.
Ready for joining?
If you're reading this as a Halter farmer, it's already live in your app. Just get in touch with your account manager to learn more!
If you're still weighing up whether Halter's right for your farm, this is the season to see it for yourself. More accurate heat detection, clearer timing, numbers you can trust and a team backing you the whole way.
Book a call with our team and we'll walk you through exactly what mating with Halter would look like on your farm.
