CowManager as Tool for a Healthier Herd

Ear Temperature is Key

Dayna milks 650 cows on 220 hectares, producing 490 kilos of milk solids per cow per year on a system 3 farm. He isn’t new to the cow monitoring game, but changed to ear tags after using other systems. “We’ve had technology in the past”, he says. “We’ve used collars but they were getting to the end of their lifetime. So, we started looking at other options. We liked the idea of ear tags on cows rather than putting collars on cows.”

Ear temperature is an incredible important aspect to track and combined with activity and rumination, CowManager is often able to detect serious issues such as mastitis before the cow becomes ill or before she is even showing clinical signs of being ill. “The CowManager programme looked to suit exactly what we wanted”, Dayna says.

Tool for a Healthier Herd

Thanks to CowManager’s unique ear temperature parameter, Dayna decreased his herd’s somatic cell count by 36%. “The tags monitor animal temperature; body temperature. When we receive a temperature alert it’s an indication of sort of infection. It helps us pick up early cases of mastitis, sometimes before they become clinical. It’s really helped our cell count this season.”

Running the Business Efficiently

Not only is the system improving health results on-farm, it’s improving mating results, too. Where the farm’s average six week in-calf rate used to be around 60%, it has increased significantly after using CowManager for just one year. “The first year we introduced CowManager, we had a 72% six week in-calf rate. We’ve held it around there in the last year or two since we’ve had it.”

This then resulted in more efficient labour, Dayna explains. “It enables us to run one less person in the cowshed. We haven’t had to have that person standing on the stand picking cows. This allows us to do other jobs during mating that we normally wouldn’t be able to do.”

Always Connected

No matter where you or your staff are, CowManager keeps an eye on the herd for you. And an added plus, according to Dayna, is that the system isn’t overly complicated. “The system’s really easy to use. Its easy to navigate on the computer or we’ve got the app on our phone that we can use in the paddock.”

The system with all its data and graphs and alerts allows farmers, experts and staff to stay in control without forcing them to physically be there at all times. “If you’re not always on farm, you can still be connected to the farm. And if the guys on farm have got some issues, you can connect them remotely and help them out with some solutions and not have to be there.”