December is the time when we look back on the past year and forward to the next; a time of reflection, make new plans and start implementing them.
Like this year, there will be challenges beyond our control in 2021. Fortunately, there are plenty of factors that we can control that positively influence farm life and profitability. In fact, new opportunities arise every season.
Here are just three of many ways to reduce workload and improve fertility and health outcomes throughout the year using activity monitoring technology.
1. Breeding season: Detect heats accurately to target a 90% submission rate in 3 weeks
Breeding season is the most important season of the year to ensure herd performance is maintained or improved next year. The targets are to get a 90% six-week in-calf rate with an empty rate below 10%. A submission rate above 90% in three weeks is considered ideal.
State-of-the-art monitoring systems like Nedap CowControl offer support in achieving this target by keeping an eye on every cow in the herd day and night. It accurately detects multiple heat signs like increased activity, sniffing, chin resting and mounting behaviour.
The system also pinpoints the optimal insemination moment of cows in heat, which helps to breed at the right time and therefore maximise submission and conception rates.
Dairy farmers with seasonal calving herds from all over the world save a lot of time on heat detection and achieve reproductive success with Nedap CowControl, one of them being Enda Doran from Roscommon in Ireland: “We completed a 100% submission rate in less than four weeks, which we could never come near that before.”
Sheridan Williams from Yannathan in Australia is also very pleased with what she and her family get from the system:
“Before we used to have tail paint or set out beacons. That took up a lot of time really and that method was not 100% watertight either so often we were second-guessing. Now this system tells us everything we need to know. It’s all there and you can see how strong her heat was. It’s really, really good in that way.”
2. Spring time: Keep cows healthy and productive around calving
Spring time is an intensely busy time. Calving, milking, transitioning cows from winter housing to pasture and feeding calves ensures that all hands are needed. In a recent Teagasc farm survey, Irish dairy farmers estimated that they worked 86 hours per week in spring.
Saving time on health checks is therefore more than welcome. Moreover, early identification of common health issues in transition cows saves on veterinary treatment, medication costs and milk loss.
Nedap CowControl monitors the eating, rumination and inactive behavior of every cow and the entire herd. Deviant behavior indicates a problem. In that case, the farmer will receive an urgent attention or the cow will be placed on a list of animals to be checked.
Farmers who use the system indicate they detect health problems two-to-three days before their symptoms become visible to the human eye.
Brian Mooney from Co. Waterford explains: “The system contacts me if something is off-form. The health monitoring is a 100%. It’s picking out everything. It’s just like having another person watching your cows.”
Health monitoring is a valuable tool all year round. Especially during the calving season, it enables farmers to keep an extra close eye on their vulnerable transition cows, deal pro-actively with health management and save time and money.
3. October: Identify late calving and empty cows to remove them from the herd early
Late-calving cows which drag on the calving season add a lot of work into a system along with the reduced profitability of that animal.
A compact calving season brings production and labour-saving benefits through improved efficiency and organisation and more uniform batches of stock. Cows will have more peak productive days, calves can be reared and off milk before the start of the busy breeding season and the calves are of similar ages and are easier to group for feeding, weaning or selling.
Targeted selection is therefore of great importance. October is a good time to remove late calving and empty cows from the herd early. To make informed decisions, Nedap CowControl provides data to identify cows with fertility problems. It delivers reproduction insights, helping you to find cows with irregular heats, non-cycling cows and non-pregnant cows.
Brendan O’Sullivan, farming in Killorglin with his dad and brother, recalls a story from when the two sons were young, they would be anxious to see when a particular cow would calf.
“Our father would say that the cow knows more about calving than you do. But now it turns out that the Nedap system knows more about the cow’s heat and the cow’s cycles than we do ourselves.”
Learn more about Nedap CowControl
Work smarter, not harder in 2021. Leading international genetics and milking equipment suppliers partner with Nedap to include its activity monitoring system in their solutions. Learn more about Nedap CowControl and find your supplier here.
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