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Catching calf illness early: Farmer sees benefits of youngstock monitoring tech
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Farming in Co. Fermanagh, Vicki Byers, alongside her husband Dale, manage a 200-pedigree Holstein herd under the prefix name of Legendairy Holsteins.
It is an autumn-calving herd producing 12,000L/cow, with cows housed all year-round.
Running a busy indoor herd while raising three young children is a constant juggling act for the couple, leaving little time to spot early signs of illness in their calves.
That is why the Byers installed SenseHub Dairy Youngstock this autumn.
How does SenseHub Dairy Youngstock work?
SenseHub Dairy Youngstock is the first and only solution for monitoring dairy calves during their first 12 months of life.
This allows the farmer to detect early signs of illness before any clinical signs become visible.
According to MSD Animal Health sales representative, John Laughlin: “SenseHub Dairy Youngstock is the latest addition to the SenseHub Ecosystem.
"It allows the farmer to monitor animals from birth the whole way into adulthood.”
The SenseHub Dairy Youngstock tag is applied to a calf’s ear from day of birth and is automatically configured to monitor it through weaning, post-weaning, and into the heat cycle stage.
"Once applied, it only takes 24 hours for the system to activate," John explained.
“It measures four key behaviours most applicable to calves: including rumination, suckling, activity and eating.
"Any changes in these will alert the farmer to any potential illness 12-36 hours before clinical signs are observed.”
When the system detects any irregular patterns in that animal’s behaviour that may indicate a developing health issue, the SenseHub app sends a notification via a health alert to notify the farmer.
Additionally, an LED light on the tag will display a flashing light when an issue arises, something Vicki finds invaluable.
This LED alert can be set within the SenseHub app to flash within a set period of time, such as when the farmer is feeding the calves.
“If I don’t have my phone on me, I can go by the LED light flashing," Vicki said.
"I have it set between 6:30a.m and 8:30a.m, so if there is any issue with a calf, it will flash during that time.
“Within the last week, one or two calves started to flash. I didn’t see anything wrong with them, they were drinking fine.
"Between feeding the calves and doing the school run, I could have missed something, but we were able to detect it straight away and sort it out straight away,” she added.
By identifying calves that need attention, SenseHub Dairy Youngstock allows earlier intervention to help the Byers establish optimal health and performance right from the start of every calf’s life.
Seamless integration for existing and new users
For existing SenseHub users like Vicki and Dale, the transition to SenseHub Dairy Youngstock was very straightforward as they already had SenseHub Behaviour Monitoring installed for monitoring their main herd.
For new customers, set up is easy and MSD Animal Health’s technical support team are always on hand to help guide farmers on how to get the most from their technology throughout their entire monitoring journey.
“Life with SenseHub means that I can leave the farm with ease, knowing that I have a second pair of eyes on farm, always watching my calves.
“It makes our life easier and has allowed us as a family to farm with more freedom,” Vicki said.
Ready to farm with more freedom?
With no upfront costs, SenseHub Dairy Youngstock is available through the SenseHub GO subscription payment model.
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