Matt Holden

Matt Holden from Onga Onga uses Zee Tag RFID eartags on his stud sheep and the system has been a big time saver for him – so much so that says he almost takes the benefits for granted now. 

Matt and Emma Holden, and sons Will (5) and Johnny (3), farm 550 hectares of easy, rolling country at Onga Onga in Hawkes Bay.  Matt runs 2400 ewes, that are part of the Kelso Stud, and says he’s pleased with his decision to switch to an RFID system.

He says the electronic tags are very light and so are ideal for smaller animals – the tags can be put in very young lambs.  The tags also have a new cutting tip that cuts cleanly allowing the ear to heal quickly and tightly around the tag..

“We started using RFID in June and have been really pleased with the efficiencies the system offers.  As with any stud operation it is absolutely essential that we correctly ID all stock and in the past this has been a time consuming task and one that is open to human error.”

Matt says an EDiT ID panel reader is permanently attached to the Racewell Sheephandler and each sheep is recorded as they move through the Racewell - there can be no duplication or missed stock, and the whole process takes a fraction of the time it used to.

“We need information on individual sheep and since we have many mobs that we need to collect information for DNA from it’s been a time consuming task. We had to run each mob through at docking time and collect all the info but now it’s done in one hit which literally saves hours of work.”

The system is linked straight into the Tru Test 3000 indicator where all information is collected – “from there it’s taken home and downloaded straight into an Excel spreadsheet where it can be emailed anywhere in the country.”

Matt says the system saves a lot of time and is 100% accurate – it also minimises the number of times information is handled plus there’s just no room for typos.

View some of the Zee Tags printing options here