When South Waikato dairy farmer Sean Gibson talks about grass, he doesn’t mince words.
“Grass is such a shit product, really,” he laughs. “But what the cow can extract from that with her four stomachs and turn into milk, it blows your mind!”
It’s exactly that mix of humour, curiosity and practicality that drives Sean’s approach to farming. He and his farm team milk 385 cows on 110 ha of sandy, free-draining country. It’s country that demands careful pasture management to stay productive.
From Eye-ometer to Evidence
Before using AIMER, pasture decisions were based on eye and experience.
“We’d just eye-o-meter paddocks or record post-grazing. Once a paddock hit about 25 days and 3,100kgDM, we’d drop it for silage. Topping was our main tool for managing seed heads.”
Now, Sean’s system is data-driven. Every Friday, his team completes a farm walk with AIMER Vision, smartphone pasture scanning each paddock to measure and forecast growth.
“We can now predict surpluses before we actually get them. That means we can lock up bigger areas earlier and keep our optimisation score above 90%. The last walk we did was 97%, so we’re going into pasture at the optimum two-and-a-half to three-leaf stage.”
The payoff for Sean is clear with more consistency, higher milk production, and less second-guessing.
“Our cows peaked at 1.9 kg milksolids per cow when we started here. This year, with AIMER helping us make more informed decisions, they’ve hit 2.3 kg milksolids per cow. They’re absolutely flying.”
Sean uses AIMER’s auto-generated and editable grazing plan feature to keep feeding levels balanced through the week.
“It tells us if the girls are going into covers that are a bit high or low and how many kilos they’ll leave behind or miss out on. That lets us even out their diet over the day. This type of consistent feeding is gold for milk production.”
Time Back in the Day
AIMER hasn’t just lifted Sean’s herd’s performance, it’s also given him and his team time back. Sean’s farm worker, Greg, tested the difference between the old plate-meter method and AIMER Vision.
“He walked the same 110 ha. With a plate meter it took nearly four hours. With AIMER it took an hour and 25 minutes. If you save two hours a week, that’s 100 hours a year you can put into something else. That’s huge!”
Empowering his team
Sean says one of the biggest wins is how AIMER empowers staff.
“Greg had never done a farm walk before. He’s an ex-landscaper from Auckland. Now he’s running the pasture management and adding real value. Tools like AIMER give people confidence, and that’s how you keep good people in farming.”
Looking Ahead
Sean believes tech like AIMER will play a growing role in telling New Zealand’s food story.
“When Fonterra markets our milk overseas, they can say Kiwi farmers are using AI-powered technology like AIMER to run a more efficient and sustainable farm business.
“With our pasture-based systems, cows are out there in their element, and we’re making the most of it with tools like AIMER. That adds value to a product we’re all proud of.”
Key results on Sean’s farm:
- 20%+ lift in peak milk production (1.9 → 2.3kgMS)
- Optimisation score consistently > 90 %
- Farm walk time cut from 4 hours to 1.5 hours
- Stronger staff engagement and decision-making
