Jason Burleigh is a fourth-generation dairy farmer and has been full-time since he was sixteen. He spent his teen years working on his parent’s farm in Nullawarre, South-West Victoria. Now, that farm is his own, and has been since July 2011. It’s home to him, his wife Abby, and their nine-year-old daughter. Impressively, they run the farm all on their own, caring for 250 cows. “It’s a family run operation”, Jason says. “We do all tasks ourselves, except for the artificial insemination of the cows.” That’s also where the technology comes in.
Ear Sensors: A Game Changer
All 250 cows have ear sensors, monitoring their activity, behaviour, eating time, resting time and rumination 24/7. “We started working with CowManager in 2015. We chose the system because of the simplicity of installing and replacing an ear tag, and for monitoring heat detection and health.” It has improved their way of working, Jason claims. “The system has enabled us to increase our in-calf rates by not missing any heats. Due to this, it has enabled us to tighten our seasonal calving pattern.”
Better Calving, Better Care
Way back when, Jason and Abby monitored fertility visually with scratchies on the cows’ backs. Any health or nutrition issues were also gauged visually. “We know, going off previous years, that by running CowManager we are now calving down a much greater number of cows in the first three weeks of calving. We are now not missing heats in the cows, and we are ensuring they get in calf quicker.”
Whenever a cow is on heat the system will send a notification in real-time, indicating the intensity of the heat and the best window of opportunity to inseminate. The same goes for health; whenever a cow is underperforming, a notification pops up on farmers’ phones and desktops. Although Jason says the attention and care for their cows hasn’t changed since using technology, monitoring their cows 24/7 has been a great help in catching sick or at-risk cows early. “It is integral to any herd that operators are still constantly keeping a visual eye on their animals. But we are now able to quickly pick up on any health issues, therefore treating cows before they become gravely ill or sometimes before they even show signs of illness.”
Great Support
The biggest personal advantage for Jason has been being able to check on their cows wherever, whenever. “It has been very handy when called away from the farm, to be able to just text through the on-heat cows to our relief milker, so they can catch those cows that are ready for AI. I’m able to check cows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The system has a mobile app which has made such a difference as we can check our herd whenever and wherever we need to.”
Aside from the tech enabling Jason to have better control and even better care for his herd, whenever something does require an extra set of eyes, the support has been amazing. “CowManager’s local representative Chris Kendall has offered us exceptional service and support – at any hour of the day or night.”
Game Changer
“I would recommend CowManager to other dairy producers because the easy to attach ear sensors are user friendly and animal friendly. The ability to detect a heat in cows that would not normally have had their scratchy scratched, indicating a heat, has been such a game changer for us. No more missed heats!”
For more information, and to get in touch with a local representative from WWS Australia, check out www.cowmanager.com/Australia.
Dairy News Australia
This article was also published by Dairy News Australia.
Why CowManager?
Always Know When to Inseminate
Inseminating 10 to 22 hours after receiving a heat alert is known to be a success. This makes mating and breeding a breeze!
Catch Diseases Early, Reduce Sick Cows
Get alerted immediately when a cow isn't ruminating or eating, and intervene proactively. Pick up on diseases like mastitis and ketosis in an early stage.
Improve Health & Production
Optimize your farm management by finding cows in heat and catching sick cows earlier, improving your herd’s health and production.