The breeding season has arrived; a busy and hectic time. Many dairy farmers see the vast majority of their herd come in for insemination within a few weeks.
In those weeks, which are essential to the farm’s profitability, nowadays it’s challenging to get a grip on reproduction results, let alone keeping work enjoyable and having time for important things like family.
Besides activity and heat signs, the system monitors eating, rumination and inactive behavior, allowing farmers to improve the reproductive performance and health of their herd, save time and gain peace of mind. Learn how it works and what it yields for Irish farmers.
Improving heat detection, submission and conception rates
Looking at key performance indicators for reproduction, the ideal target for an Irish dairy farm is a submission rate of +90%. This is 90% of the portion of the herd you want to breed coming into heat and inseminated in the first three weeks of the breeding season.
Arnold Harbers, data analyst and reproduction specialist at Nedap, explains a few ways in which Nedap CowControl can help achieve that:
“With a system like this, farmers can keep an eye on every cow in the herd day and night. It monitors every cow 24/7 and detects multiple heat signs like sniffing, chin resting and mounting behavior. On the health side, it is able to detect issues before clinical signs are visible to the human eye.
There are only 1.5 mounts per hour per cow and each mount lasts four to six seconds.
According to Harbers, research results about expressing heat behavior underline why a system can increase heat detection rates:
“There are only 1.5 mounts per hour per cow and each mount lasts four to six seconds. Approximately 70% of mounting occurs between 7:00pm and 7:00am when cows have limited distractions. That’s 70% of the herd coming into heat during the nighttime.”
Detecting all those heats is essential to be able to get the chance to breed as many cows as possible in these few weeks.
Harbers continues: “The system also pinpoints the optimal insemination moment of these cows, which helps farmers to breed them at the right time and therefore maximise submission and conception rates.”
Some cows are annovular and simply may not be cycling. With an activity monitoring system, farmers can act proactively by finding these problem cows quicker, then solving the cause of the fertility problem or providing an effective treatment to resolve it; ultimately getting them bred faster.
“Instead of missing the heat and waiting for the next cycle, activity monitors give you actionable insights to dig deeper into why a cow didn’t come into heat,” Harbers adds.
What Irish farmers achieved with help of Nedap CowControl
Nationally, only 58% of the Irish dairy herd calves in the first six weeks of the calving season in a calving interval of 394 days. Targets are 80% of the entire herd calved in the first six weeks and a calving interval of 365 days.
Nedap customers report a dramatic rise in their submission rate since installing Nedap CowControl. Previously, dairy farmer Enda Doran would rely on tailpaint but was not overly successful.
“Since installing Nedap, it was already up to 97% in the first spring. And we completed a 100% submission rate in less than four weeks, which we could never come near that before with the old system,” he said.
“We find with missed cycles that there is a loss in production of an average of €250/cow. If you take this in account, the investment in the system is paid back within a short time.”
Also at Morgan O’Sullivan’s farm in Killorglin, it had a positive impact on reproduction results as well as their peace of mind. He and his two sons Morgan junior and Brendan run a dairy operation, while also working off-farm employment.
Brendan O’Sullivan said: “It has reduced our repeat rate quite considerably compared to previous years. We’re using less straws and our AI is also more timely.
It has reduced our repeat rate quite considerably compared to previous years.
Brendan realises these improved reproduction results trickle down to the financial results of the farm.
“If you are losing calving days, you are losing days in milk, which in turn affects the profitability of the farm at the bottom line.”
Gain peace of mind and save time to spend elsewhere on the farm or with family
Knowing that the system monitors the herd 24/7, even when you’re off the farm, provides peace of mind. Not having to watch for heats and health issues saves lots of time and repetitive tasks. Time that can be spend elsewhere on the farm or with family.
Morgan Junior commented on this, saying: “It‘s like a second set of eyes on the cows when we‘re off the farm. That goes for heat detection but also the health monitoring is second to none. It is operating as an insurance policy for our cows.”
Learn more and find your distributor
Leading international milking equipment and genetics suppliers partner with Nedap to include the technology in their systems. Learn more and find your Nedap CowControl distributor here
