Robindale Dairies, Canterbury, New Zealand

The Customer

Robindale Dairies Limited is one of the largest single-site diary farms in New Zealand. The company employs 25 full-time farm hands. The dairy farm is one of seven dairy units which are part of the Synlait Group. The Synlait Group develops farmland into highly productive dairy units in the central Canterbury area. Robindale milks 3,500 cows a day on 1,000 hectare of undulating farmland. The Robindale herd is predominantly Friesian in breed.

The Challenge

Being located in the picturesque rural area of Mid Canterbury has made radio communications difficult for Robindale Dairies. Gorges, mountain ranges, gullies and large pine plantations all restrict radio coverage. Management required a two-way mobile radio system that gave them the freedom to be able to communicate with their farmhands 24/7 both on and off the farm.

They needed a dependable system that would allow them to communicate with farmhands, without delay, to ensure operations were running smoothly and, more importantly, to know that their farmhands were safe when working remotely. The current system restricted coverage to within farm limits and some areas of the farm had no coverage at all.

The solution

Each farmhand has their own Tait portable positioned in a special pocket on their overalls which allows easy access and ensures they get the best possible coverage. When Tait positioned a new communication site on the summit of Mt Hutt, the highest local mountain, this allowed Robindale to store their Tait low cost repeater at the site.

As a result, the team at Robindale has a much larger coverage area and has dramatically improved communications. They no longer experience coverage problems and management have the flexibility to control the operations outside the farm boundaries; in fact they can communicate as far away as 100 kilometers in any direction.

Better coverage has improved safety and gives farm management peace of mind when farmhands are working remotely or with dangerous machinery.

The outcome

Robindale and Tait enjoy an excellent working relationship. This relationship looks likely to grow in the future with Robindale looking to extend its communications system to include remote monitoring capabilities for its irrigation system.