There’s a certain way we talk about technology in farming.
Usually, it gets framed as progress. More efficient. Less labour. Better outcomes. And to be fair, a lot of that stacks up. Halter is probably the clearest example of that right now, but it won’t be the last. More technology is coming, and much of it will promise the same thing: more control, more consistency, and less reliance on people having to be across everything all at once.
Labour is tight. Good people are hard to find. And in many businesses, the depth that used to sit in the middle of the farm team is not building the same way. Traditionally, a good farm often ran on the strength of its 2IC. The person who could carry the day without needing to be told what to do. Reading situations early, making calls, holding standards when no one was watching.
That role still exists, but people are moving through it faster. The pull to step up into Farm Manager or move into Contract Milking is strong, and it’s happening earlier. So what used to be a stage where judgement was built and confidence hardened is now often shorter than it once was.
The result is a thinner middle. Not because the capability isn’t there, but because there’s less time for it to properly form. And that’s part of the reason technology is landing so well, tools like Halter are not just helping farms become more efficient, they are also helping farms manage around pressure points that used to rely heavily on a capable person being across every detail. Feed allocation becomes more structured. Cow movement becomes more consistent. Timing improves.
And it is exactly why this kind of technology is valuable, but there’s a part of this that doesn’t get talked about. Technology does not remove the need for management. If anything, it increases it because no system delivers value just by being installed. It has to be embedded. Used properly. Used consistently. Interpreted well. Made to fit the farm. And that responsibility doesn’t sit with the technology. It sits with management.
So while a system may relieve pressure in one part of the business, it often increases expectation somewhere else. Onto the manager. Onto the leadership layer. Onto the people responsible for making sure the system actually works in practice.
That is not a criticism of the technology. Good technology still needs good people around it. And that’s where this becomes a people story.
Because if technology is taking care of some of what a 2IC may once have spent more time on, then the responsibility to build your next 2IC doesn’t go away. If anything, it becomes more deliberate.
The industry still needs people who can think, make calls, solve problems and lead. People who can step up when something changes, when the system needs interpreting, or when the business grows beyond its current structure. Technology can absolutely strengthen a farm business, but it works best when it sits alongside capability development, not instead of it.
That’s the opportunity sitting underneath all of this. Technology is going to keep getting better. Halter is one example of that now. Other systems, tools, and platforms, some of which we probably haven’t even seen yet, will keep changing how work gets done on farm.
So the real question is not whether technology is good or bad. In many cases, it will be very good. The real question is whether we stay equally deliberate about growing the people around it.
The best operators are already doing that well. They’re not choosing between technology and people. They’re using technology to create structure and consistency, while still being intentional about growing capability in their team. They’re involving their 2ICs in decisions, not removing them from them. They’re using systems as tools to teach, not just tools to operate.
Because they know the goal isn’t just a well-run farm today. It’s building the depth that keeps the farm strong into the future.
So yes, Halter might be the example in front of us right now. But the bigger story is not really about Halter at all. It’s about what happens to farm businesses when technology starts taking care of more of the work that used to grow people.
And the farms that get this right will be the ones that understand that early, not just adopting the next system, but growing the next layer of capability alongside it.
