Interest in digital grass monitoring service continues to grow

A case in point is Aaron McNeilly, who milks 180 cows near Randalstown in Co Antrim.

He explained: “I wanted a service that would monitor the grass remotely, without me having to use a plate meter each week.

“Omega Crop uses satellite imagery to measure the grass with all the relevant information subsequently coming through to my phone or the laptop.”

Aaron added: “I receive a predicted growth projection, which allows me to take out excess paddocks for silage.

“This approach dramatically reduces the amount of waste generated, from a grassland management point of view.”

Availing of the Omega Crop service entailed the registering of all the fields through Google Maps.

“Setting up the system was very straightforward. If any issues arise I can contact the Omega Crop technical team through WhatsApp: they get back to me very quickly,” Aaron continued.

“Omega Crop has worked well for me in 2024. The availability of the service means that I am no longer walking fields. This takes time: and time costs money.”

The Omega Crop service is coordinated in Northern Ireland by Dale Farm and United Feeds Company agronomist, Chloe Kyle, commented: “We are providing opportunities for farmers across Northern Ireland to trial Omega Crop for use in 2025.”

But what makes Omega Crop different to other pasture management services?

Jared Bainbridge is a Co-founder and CEO of Omega Crop. He explained: “Omega Crop offers the only daily grass cover prediction service, providing growth forecasts for each of your fields each day to ensure you always have the most current data at your fingertips. We achieve this by leveraging multiple sources of remote sensing data to assess all the factors influencing grass growth, whether it’s faster or slower.

“This information, combined with our proprietary crop models, allows us to accurately predict daily grass growth for each field each day.

“In addition, each day we produce a 7-day forecast of grass cover for each of your fields. Omega Crop is the only system on the market with this capability. Helping you spend less time walking fields so you have more time for everything else.”

Bainbridge continued: “As a dairy farmer, you are likely to be moving your cows multiple times each week. If your grass measurements are not updated daily, then you risk making decisions based on increasingly outdated information about the actual grass cover in your fields. You need a service that can keep pace with the frequency of your decision-making. Relying on outdated software that either demands significant manual effort to maintain accuracy or updates too infrequently is simply not sufficient to keep pace with the modern demands of rotational grazing.

“The bottom line is that the only service that can keep up with you is Omega Crop, and you should contact us today to organise when you would like to trial it for free.”

For further information, contact your Dale Farm or United Feeds representative or Chloe Kyle directly on 07407 879399