Boesmansfontein, a Western Cape dairy farm situated in the Swartland, has taken the proverbial leap to wireless communications with the implementation of a wireless infrastructure by Nology reseller PC-Dot-Com.
The farm now benefits from improved monitoring and real-time remote access to its dairy stall and 400 cows, as well as enhanced communication on the farm in general.
The challenge
The Boesmanfontein farm includes a number of buildings, which comprise the farmhouse (where the office is situated) and the dairy stall. However, as with most farms, the buildings are located in excess of 200 metres apart.
Says Dicky Hewitt of Boesmansfontein: "Our dairy stall features a computer system which, among others, runs the Afikim Israeli software application for statistical analysis of our cows."
Afikim is an advanced dairy farming and herd management software solution.
Real-time information gathered by Afimilk modules provide a dairy farmer with decision-making tools for both short-term tactical and long-term strategic decisions related to an entire herd and individual cows.
Explains Hewitt: "This system provides us with information such as which cows have produced less milk on a specific day, allowing us to make the necessary decisions to sort cows for closer examination or adjust the feed. To fully utilise the Afikim's real-time functionality, however, we needed to implement a wireless system that would allow staff to monitor the stall from the office or other buildings on the farm."
The solution
Boesmanfontein approached PC-Dot-Com, and the company proposed a wireless system that included AirLive WL5460AP wireless access points, weatherproof casings and brackets - a solution that would cope with all environmental conditions.
Explains Viktor Liebl, owner of PC-Dot-Com: "A farming environment poses quite a challenge, as you don't always have clear line of sight. One therefore has to design a system that can cope with challenging weather conditions and various other types of interference.
"With the Boesmansfontein farm, we essentially had to wirelessly connect three buildings that were more than 200 metres apart, while compensating for possible disruption. This meant we required scoop antennas that could deal with interference. In addition, we implemented AirLive's wireless access points to ensure we could obtain a strong wireless signal, so improving the reliability of the wireless infrastructure."
Says Riaan Leuschner, MD at Nology, the official supplier of AirLive networking solutions to the South African channel: "We were confident that our AirLive solutions would meet the challenges that faced Boesmansfontein and the reliability and strength of the brand made it the right choice."
The implementation went smoothly and the three AirLive access points, as well as supporting technology, such as the scoop antennas, were installed in three days.
The benefits
Boesmansfontein now benefits from a wireless system that allows it to gain immediate and remote access to Afikim and other applications running on the dairy stall's IT infrastructure.
"The wireless system has undoubtedly made difference to the way we manage our operations on the farm," says Hewitt. "I can now monitor the dairy stall and send information to the other buildings and offices while continuing to work in my office.
"It saves on time and allows us to make decisions on the fly as we can keep an eye on our cows on an ongoing basis, while analysing the information provided to us by the Afikim system."
Concludes Liebl: "In the year since the implementation of the wireless system, Boesmansfontein has had reliable communications and the real-time remote access capability has improved its operations. Reliable technology such as AirLive's wireless access points has made an important contribution to the success of the project."
Further accentuating the South African farming community's move towards 21st century technology, similar wireless systems have also been implemented by PC-Dot-Com on dairy farms as far as the Tstisikamma district in the Eastern Cape.
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