Ultimate Cow Health - allflex aus : allflex aus

Background

With an increase in cow numbers from 140 to 240, Warren and Megan Gallagher decided to use technology to help with mating precision and herd management. For the first time, this season Warren used the Allflex SenseTime™monitoring system on his dairy farm in Clunes, NSW. “I’d been a little disappointed in my in- calf rate,” says Warren. “I’m good at seeing the heats, but SenseTime gives you accurate information on when you should join them.” The goals were to improve the timing of AI (artificial insemination) and Warren has already noticed how some cows have a longer heat than others. “If I saw them jumping in the afternoon, I would have joined them the following morning. The SenseTime graph tells me some cows shouldn’t be joined until the following afternoon due to a longer pre-heat timeframe. Before putting the collars on, I wouldn’t have been able to tell.”

Challenges

He recalls 14 heats detected by SenseTime, compared with four heats that they spotted. The cost in heat scratches is $1,000 per year for Warren and his straws are $22 each, so having the accuracy provided by the collars removes the wastage and makes the system cost effective. “It has saved us heaps of time. Last week we went through the fresh cows and there were 140. The system told me there were 45 that hadn’t had a heat, so I was able to separate them and the vet only needed to check 45 instead of 140. It was very simple.”