Michael Larcombe B.V.Sc (Hons), M.V.S., Ph.D.

Michael Larcombe graduated with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science from The University of Melbourne in 1983. He then moved into Veterinary practice with the Maffra Veterinary Centre under the direction of Jakob Malmo. This led to a specialisation in dairy cattle medicine, in particular dairy herd reproduction. The first software written by Mike for the dairy industry was developed during this time. It enabled a detailed analysis of herd breeding records to be undertaken, and formed a part of his Masters of Veterinary Studies thesis.

The challenge of understanding the dairy production system initiated a Ph.D. in 1986. The topic of Mike’s thesis was "The economic effects of manipulating reproduction in dairy herds that graze pasture". This was completed in 1989, and Udder was born. Udder was used in the thesis to determine the financial impact of changing the calving pattern of a dairy herd. WPC Computing, which is managed by Mike, was established to continue the development of Udder and other farm software.

Mike took up employment as a Farm Management Consultant with Maffra Herd Improvement during 1989. A full time consulting business was developed with the Co-operative during the next two years, and Mike still commits about 20-25% of his time consulting directly with dairy farmer clients.

Maffra Herd Improvement required an extensive upgrade of its data processing software, and Mike reduced his time devoted to consulting, and took up software development for the Co-op. This led to the MISTRO recording system that was implemented in 1994. MISTRO is now responsible for managing semen inventory stocks, processing laboratory samples, collating cow production records, and distributing farm and financial management software to the majority of Australian dairy producers and herd improvement service providers.