Mr Luckman is tackling one of the biggest issues faced by New Zealand sheep farmers — parasite management and, in the worst case, drench resistance — which is estimated to be costing the industry $110 million annually in lost production.
Through his work as a large animal vet over the past two decades, he has seen first-hand the daily struggles of managing parasites and the growing problem of drench resistance. More than one-third of farms now had triple drench resistance and something had to be done, he said.
Keen on "hard challenges", Mr Luckman decided to take it on himself and, on reflection, starting a project with not enough knowledge was probably the best idea as he came in with an assumption that it could be done, he said.
He has designed DAGI (drench and grazing integration), an app designed to help farmers manage drench resistance effectively through better use of grazing management.
Describing it as "almost an adviser in your pocket", the app combined on-farm data and history with automated modelling to deliver real-time, data-driven grazing recommendations, helping farmers make proactive decisions to control parasite load and protect flock health.
Mr Luckman’s veterinary career has been spent at Vet Centre Waimate and he was now taking a step back from clinical work to focus on his company AgVisory and DAGI.
But it was not the end of his association with the Veterinary Centre as he was continuing with some consulting work, particularly with collars and strategic on-farm planning.
He has been working on DAGI for about two years and, since December, a first beta group of about 40 farmers throughout New Zealand had been inputting their data.
Soon, a second round of beta farmers would stress test the system and it was hoped to be ready to launch on the New Zealand market by Field Days at Mystery Creek in June.
There had already been "massive" interest in the app, not only in New Zealand but also overseas, including Australia, the United Kingdom, Chile and Canada, and it was transferable to those markets with some tweaks.
Parasite management was not just a sheep problem and stage two was rebuilding the app for cattle which he hoped to launch next year. There were several things that needed solved to get to that stage, he said.
Mr Luckman had designed the app to be as automated as possible and, just like collars, it was not a silver bullet — it was a tool, and it would allow farmers to make better informed decisions daily as they moved stock around the farm. Hopefully, it would be a productivity tool, allowing farmers to grow more protein more efficiently.
