In the hills of northern Tasmania, not far from Elizabethtown, farm manager Blair Murray oversees Aurora Dairies’ 550-cow operation, Midlothian. With two decades in dairying behind him, Blair has seen enough to know that milk quality is never guaranteed. It’s something you're working to protect - every milking, every wash cycle, every power fluctuation, every day.
“Milk quality is very important,” he says. “There are stiff penalties for going outside the band you’re supposed to be in… and many, many things can go wrong – with both mechanical and human error.”
For Blair, that reality shaped how he managed the dairy long before Levno. It meant keeping a constant eye on cooling, checking temperatures in person, and relying on a mix of experience and vigilance to catch issues before they affected quality. But as he puts it, “you can be away from the dairy for quite a while,” and that’s where things can slip.
That changed when Levno was installed. Blair describes it simply:
“It’s my eye in the sky.”
From the moment he started using the app, Levno became part of his day - not an add-on, but a tool he now checks “10 times a day,” from early morning through to afternoon milking. At any moment he can see how much milk is going into the vat, whether it’s cooling properly, and if anything has tripped the system.
“All you have to do is open the app,” he says. “It tells me exactly what’s happening, real time.”
That real-time visibility has become especially important on a farm where power spikes are common. Although the backup generator can get things running again, the risk is in the lag - the time between power dropping and someone noticing the milk isn’t cooling.
With Levno, Blair sees the temperature straight away. If something’s not right, he knows immediately.
“If we know real time that there is an issue, we can fix it quickly. The problem is when you’re two or three hours down the track and you realise something has gone wrong - that’s when you end up outside the band.”
Levno has reshaped Blair’s routine, taking pressure off the daily check-ins he used to feel tied to.
“It saves me time and gives me peace of mind,” he says. Instead of running back and forth to the dairy, he monitors everything while working elsewhere on the farm, also using Levno to keep up to date on when collections have taken place.
“It’s what I do every day. It’s part of my day.”
It’s also become a safeguard against human error. If milk is entering the vat at the wrong temperature, Blair can usually pinpoint the cause instantly: “Someone probably forgot to turn the plate cooler on.” Levno turns what could be a delayed discovery into a quick phone call and a fast fix.
One thing Blair highlights repeatedly is ease of use.
“You just click on the icon… it’s right in front of you. You can’t miss it. You can’t stuff it up.”
Setup was straightforward, and after a few early calibrations, “it’s been good ever since.”
When asked whether he’d recommend Levno, Blair doesn’t hesitate:
“Absolutely. Crazy not to have it… It’s money in the bank. It saves me time, saves me frustration. Knowing what’s going on in the vat all the time. You’d be mad not to have it.”
For Blair, Levno isn’t tech for tech’s sake. It’s a practical tool that makes everyday risks manageable and protects the milk quality he works so hard to produce.