Randy Rau from Looking Forward located in Dorchester, WI manages a 1,200-dairy herd. In 2022 Randy began working with iYOTAH Solutions as pilot herd farm for the development of the nTELL platform. During weekly meetings Randy and the iYOTAH team worked together to ingest and overlay Looking Forward’s herd, feed and processor data. nTELL is designed to help producers and their trusted advisors make decisions that will identify and add value to the operation.
Randy assesses his herd regularly to determine which animals are not making money for the operation and dragging behind those in their cohort. Randy explains, “I want to see who the bottom 10 are in my herd and determine why they are in the herd now, and if they should stay or be removed.”
Using nTELL, Randy identified 15 cows that were lagging in the herd. From a list that he generated from the nTELL platform, Randy confirmed with other system data points, as well as a visual review, that 12 of the 15 cows needed to be eliminated from the Looking Forward herd. “These animals were flying under the radar and not making us money. nTELL helped me find them and make the decision on who to cull. I was able to stop breeding or feeding cows that were not going to make a positive return in time or money. The efficiency of being able to make a quick decision on the bottom part of my herd saved me time, which is money.”