The Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR) has teamed up with Dairy Australia to launch a pilot blog on cow fertility.

The Dairy Fertility Investigator blog, which can be accessed at www.dairyfertility.com.au, is coordinated by Warrnambool DEDJTR veterinarian Dr Ee Cheng Ooi and will connect Victoria’s 6000 farmers in an online community.

Dr Ooi, a Warrnambool DEDJTR dairy extension officer, suggested the online blog as an alternative communication channel for farmers unable to attend workshops and seminars.

Her supervisor, Dr Sarah Chaplin, said they’d been trying to find new ways to better connect with farmers for a long time.

“Not all farmers like to come to information groups and workshops or can actually make it to them due to where they live and the running of their farm.

“But we do know that many like to seek their own information by scouring the Internet,” Dr Chaplin said.

But Dr Ooi said not everyone was as keen as Dr Chaplin to take cow fertility into cyberspace.

“It’s been very difficult getting the whole thing up and running. It was hard to explain what a blog is, and assure them (the DEDJTR) about the risks,” she said.

“I’ve been really keen to have my own voice and to say things that I think are interesting,” Dr Ooi said. 

“It’s an opportunity to move away from the more formal stuff being written for departmental dairy extension,” she said.

Dr Chaplin said the blog would let farmers read about “reproduction issues through her (Dr Ooi’s) eyes.”

She said there were strong approval processes behind everything that Dr Ooi published.

Dr Ooi said she fought hard to make sure that the approval processes weren’t “lengthy”.

“What we’re trying to do is tap into the emerging farmers space, younger farmers who are already familiar using social media online technologies,” she said.

“Farmers tend to like learning from other farmers. They feel like they have a practical view of what is going on the farm.”

A recent post was about Karina Glass, a dairy farmer from Strathmerton who is trialling the use of fortified milk and a five-week weaning system.

Dr Chaplin said herd reproduction was very complicated and “that’s why fertility as a blog topic has a lot of potential because we can cover a lot of different aspects in a blogging platform.” 

Source:thecitizen.org.au