Hi
Welcome to the final edition of the Wingman NOTAM for 2025.
We’re through the hard bit of the season now – calving is over, crops are in the group, and mating is nearly complete. Those first 6 months of the season really are a bit of a whirlwind and I hope everyone has some time off over Summer to do whatever it is that makes you happy and fills your cup!
Here’s what we’ve been up to since our last NOTAM –
Customer Experience Survey Results
We commissioned our first ever Customer Experience Survey and invited the 30-odd farmers on our top-tier plan (the All In bundle) to answer a short survey about how they found their experience with us. The results were great in terms of giving us things to think about improving for next season; some of these were on our radar already, others were not. They key improvements requested were:
Redesign the WOF with more graphs/tables and make it easier to understand
The more cool stuff I learned about people’s herds, the more I wanted to share it with the next guy! Sorry they got too long and wordy. There are more visual aids coming in the WOF’s next season.
Clarity around the top-tier pricing plan of $2k + $2/cow (what, when and how much $)
I’m aiming to have a one-pager sorted for next year to clearly articulate how much each piece of work costs and when it would be charged.
There was also a great request around invoicing. One respondent asked for two bills only – 1) the $2k bundle; and 2) the $2/cow balloon payment. This was instead of a pay-as-you-go approach, and is something I’m planning on investigating further.
Challenges that come with scale
There were some concerns related to staff interpreting the bull planner accurately to get the most out of using Nominated semen and our bull team.
As of next season, we will offer the choice of either the Mating Guide (for optimal TOP mating decisions) or Individual Matings (colour-coded, matched matings for ease of use).
As an incentive, I had promised 3 lucky respondents a bottle of port each if their responses were submitted by 24/11. Congratulations to Tracy & Jonny O’Sullivan, Chris & Rosie Mexted, and Kate & Joey Stainton-Herbert as our winners.
Bulls On My Radar
Friesian
Currently sitting at #5 on the RAS List for Friesians, 122056 Sage has a combined F+P of 86kg, 505kg LWT, Fertility = 0.7 and Udder Overall = 0.61. I really like what Sage has got to offer in terms of being multifunctional – he could be used in both XB and Friesian herds in any number of roles. He’s also scoring pretty well on Farmer Opinion at 0.41.
XB
There is a bit of dark horse sitting down at #17 on the RAS List – 522036 Beastie. Beastie is sired by Speakes Slipstream (known for his great udders) and is already rocking a Farmer Opinion of 0.61 (which is massive).
I think Beastie might be a dark horse because of the relationship we discovered between PW, Capacity and Rump Width. XB cows who were above breed average for Capacity and Rump Width tended to be the higher PW cows in the herd. What does Beastie have? Capacity = 0.45 (XB breed average = 0.13), Rump Width = 0.60 (XB breed average = -0.02).
Jersey
Small Jerseys tend to dominate the RAS List because of how their BW is calculated, but there’s a handful that seem to buck the trend each year.
One of these bulls is 321951 Castro. Castro only had 22 daughters in 8 herds last season, which didn’t qualify him for a full ‘proof’ as it were. However, we used him with caution in with a couple of our herds last season on the basis of those provisional results.
At this stage, he’s looking like a nice ‘All-rounder’ type of bull with 0.52 for Udder Overall, 470kg LWT, 4.2% for Fertility and 0.33 for Capacity.
What next for Wingman?
Recruitment
- We had a huge growth spurt last season, and we’re getting close to the point where employing someone is going to be a necessity. My current thinking is to employ someone on a part time basis in the South Island to support our farmers down there, and then aim to grow that role into a full-time position. That will be a massive step for us, and one which I hadn’t imagined taking quite so soon!
Software
- We’ve built a tool that uses the RAS List to help a farmer with no knowledge of bulls select a team (or at least have a long list) that is relevant to their farm system/challenges.
Our aim is to have it ready for a beta-launch this side of June 2026. There is still user validation work that needs to be completed prior to launch, so some of you will probably get a phone call from me about testing it and providing feedback.
On behalf of Wingman, thank you for your support over the last 12 months.
Wishing you all the very best for the festive season,
