Reliable calving alerts and continuous health monitoring can help farmers to improve management, animal health and thus, economic success during calving season.
The smaXtec health is one system that provides just this: Helpful features for dairy farmers to improve health management and farm results.
This is especially valuable during calving season; knowing the exact time of calving is crucial in dairy farming as it enables farmers to make all the necessary preparations in time for a trouble-free birth and to keep a close eye on the cow during and after calving.
Helping with this, smaXtec sends a calving alert, on average, 15 hours before calving begins.
It does this via temperature monitoring; inner body temperature decreases when the calving process starts. Due to its unique bolus technology and precise temperature measurement (±0.01 °C relative accuracy), smaXtec can reliably detect this temperature change and informs the farmer via smart phone or PC.
Continuous health monitoring
The continuous health monitoring and reliable calving alerts allow farmers to observe all animals very closely during the critical period around calving, and to take all necessary measures to ensure a problem-free birth.
Important steps such as taking the cow to a separate calving box, administer a calcium bolus to prevent milk fever eventually, or assisting during birth and contacting the vet if needed, can be taken at a very early stage due to smaXtec’s continuous monitoring.
Another great advantage is that smaXtec also detects calvings that occur earlier than expected. This allows farmers to save the lives of calves and cows – especially, but not only, in the case of twin births.
But the smaXtec calving alert is by far not the only benefit for farmers.
Preventing problems
The continuous and precise measurement of inner body temperature, drinking behaviour, rumination and activity allows for the early detection of diseases long before visible symptoms appear.
This way, farmers immediately know if any health problems occur post-calving and, with smaXtec, farmers even manage to avoid milk fever completely.
Milk fever is one of the most common metabolic diseases in dairy cows. Triggered by calcium deficiency or a disturbance in the calcium metabolism, it often develops in the difficult phase after calving.
While a drop in temperature in a highly pregnant cow usually indicates the impending calving, a further drop in temperature after calving is a characteristic sign of milk fever.
smaXtec monitors all important parameters such as inner body temperature, rumination, drinking behaviour and activity, through which early detection of milk fever is possible
smaXtec also recognises the slightest changes of these parameters and alerts the farmer, allowing him to intervene and prevent a severe disease progression or avoid the disease outbreak altogether.
Helping hand
The smaXtec health system helps farmers to improve their management and to increase their operation’s success with healthier cows – throughout the year and especially during calving season.
Michael Colwell, smaXtec customer from the UK, reports that the system made calving a lot less stressful for him and his 300 cows. See his testimonial below.
Moreover, smaXtec now offers the only technology worldwide that measures water intake of every individual cow. Especially after calving, adequate water intake is crucial for the cow’s health, sufficient feed intake and thus milk yield.
With smaXtec TruDrinking, farmers are always up to date on each cow’s drinking behaviour and can thus ensure optimal water supply.
Overall, smaXtec enables farmers to take the right action at an early stage. In this way they benefit from easier calvings and avoid risks during this critical period, such as retained placentas or uterine infections.
This then leads to fewer post-natal problems as well as milder disease progression and reduced usage of antibiotics. The result being a good start for cow and calf, a healthier herd and a consistent milk production.
For more information on the smaXtec system, click here.
