Along with his wife, Michael O’Driscoll milks 90 cows in a spring-calving system just outside Ballineen, in Co. Cork. They farm 100ac, 50 of which are rented.
The herd is mainly Holstein Friesian and they are 100% artificial insemination-bred.
As the pair have a young family of three children, they wanted to free up more time around the farm. Michael began looking at heat detection systems and landed on Censortec Nedap CowControl.
“One of the main reasons I installed the system was to be able to spend more time with my family. Our children are ranging in age from 12 years down to 18 months, and I felt I was starting to miss out on their childhood,” said Michael.
“From that point alone, CowControl has been a huge help. In spring, I’m not spending time watching for heats at night after milking. I can get in earlier and spend time with the kids or help with them, and I’m not worrying about going back out to check cows.
“It’s great peace of mind knowing that nothing will be missed.”
The Censortec Nedap Cow Control system can also indentify animals that need to be drafted and – through partnership – the ALFCO drafting gate can be remotely set up to remove them with a minimum of fuss.
So when a farmer receives a notification to say that a cow is in heat then the gate will draft the cows automatically and seamlessly.
Ireland’s leading provider of drafting gates
ALFCO farm services was established in 1978 and the Trim-based business provides automatic scrapers, stall work, feeding troughs and various gates for use in milking parlours.
“The drafting gate is for where you have a one-man operation and he has to sort out cows,” said Kieran Kerrigan of ALFCO.
“The drafting gate is a piece of equipment where you key in the cow’s number into a keypad at the front of the pit and as the cow uses the milking parlour, it will separate that cow from the rest of the cows. It’s a huge labour-saving device.”
Michael made the decision to install both the health and heat detection modules, and he’s very glad he did.
“I’ve been surprised by how useful the health monitoring has been for the herd. I installed Censortec as a heat detection system, but the benefits from the health alerts are as valuable to me as the heat alerts,” he said.
Michael had decided to install a heat detection system to achieve a few goals. He wanted to free up some of his time, create a more compact calving season and make better use of genetics on farm.
Previously, Michael was tail painting cows during the breeding season and visually watching for heats.
“You could spend 15 minutes standing at the gap before bringing the cows in watching for heats, and I’d go back out after milking in the evenings to watch them as well,” he said.
“It would take a fair bit of time every day, as well as topping up tail paint. With CowControl that’s all eliminated. It’s a huge time saver.”
He used to use artificial insemination (AI) followed by stock bulls to clean up at the end of the breeding season. While aiming for a more compact calving system, he found that some of his better cows were slipping through the net.
“A few of what I would have considered my best production cows were never served to AI, because I didn’t see them bulling. But each year they held to the stock bull. This past spring, they all showed clear heat alerts on CowControl, and they all held to their first service. I’m delighted I’ll be getting higher genetic merit AI-bred calves from these cows next spring now,” Michael said.
CowControl has also helped with eliminating culls from the herd, as the stock bull occasionally impregnated cows Michael had marked for culling.
“I’m using 100% AI now, and it means that those cows are culled and I’m not breeding from problem cows,” he said.
“I feel I’m making far better use of the genetics I have because of the data I get from CowControl.”
The pre-breeding period on Michael’s farm has been made easier because of CowControl as well.
“I was tail painting cows during pre-breeding, but that doesn’t always show up the cows that are not cycling. These used to slip under the radar and become more of a problem as time went on,” he said.
“Now, with CowControl I get an alert at 45 days in milk if a cow hasn’t cycled. It’s a massive time saver; I can get the cow checked and have her ready to go at the start of the breeding season. Already it’s had an impact on tightening up our calving pattern,” Michael added.
The accuracy of the system has impressed Michael during the breeding season.
This past spring, a neighbour was inseminating Michael’s heifers, as he had a wrist injury. Michael’s neighbour said that when he handled the heifers, they were always showing a good heat, which he wasn’t experiencing at other farms he was inseminating on. Michael puts this down to the accuracy of the optimum time to breed feature.
“This gave me great confidence because we were using sexed semen on the heifers for the first time. I don’t think I would have gambled the investment on sexed semen without having the data the system provides. It’s great reassurance,” he said.
Transition cow management
Another unexpected impact of Censortec Nedap CowControl has been felt on transition cow management. Michael noticed that some cows were showing decreased eating and rumination when they were turned out to grass after calving.
The data from CowControl caused him to change his transition management.
“I noticed that some fresh cows were ruminating and eating as normal before they calved, but once they calved and were turned out, it dropped dramatically,” he said.
“Now, I make sure they have access to silage before turning out, to help with fibre levels in the rumen before they access the lush spring grass. It’s helped keep their rumination more balanced.
“It caused me to change grazing management in early spring too. On wet days I’d see rumination drop, or of they were on very lush grass. I’d then make sure the herd had access to hay or straw to increase fibre in their diet.”
When asked what his advice would be to other farmers who are considering this technology, his answer is clear.
“Go and put it in,” he laughed.
“I installed Censortec in October 2020, and it gave the system time to calibrate and build up a picture of each cow’s data long before calving started. We hit the ground running in the spring then,” he continued.
“I’ve found the team incredibly helpful, with excellent back up. They’re totally farmer orientated, and I feel like I’m dealing with people who understand what I’m talking about.
“I had seen first-hand on a cousin’s farm the benefits of the system, and it’s great that it’s backed up with excellent service. That, and the long battery life is what convinced me that Censortec Nedap CowControl was the right system to install.”
Heat detection and health monitoring
Censortec Nedap cow Control uses the latest technology to monitor and track the heats of cows 24-hours a day, including signs of heat like sniffing, chin resting, mounting and standing heat.
The system monitors heats with outstanding accuracy through the Smarttag Neck Collar and transfers all the data in real time, so you can easily access it on a phone, tablet or computer. It is this data that is now being transferred to the ALFCO drafting systems which will conveniently draft all the animals on heat attention.
“There is a small window to catch heats and there is even a smaller window to illustrate the optimum time for insemination. The Censortec Nedap Cow Control system picks up the optimum time for insemination of each dairy cow,” said Donagh Crowley of Censortec Ireland.
“In the past couple of years the usage of sexed semen has become more widely used in the Irish market. Timing of AI with sexed semen is absolutely critical.
“Censortec Nedap cow Control will illustrate this time and will increase your returns on using Sexed Semen.”
Censortec Nedap Cow Control removes the need for tail painting, cow watching and other labour-intensive activities, while increasing accuracy and making high submission rates a realistic target for dairy farmers.
It aims to make the farm a safer place with regards the reduction in bulls and now the availability of auto drafting with ALFCO Drafting System.
To learn more about heat detection with activity monitoring systems and how they can help your farm reach your productivity goals, visit: www.censortec.com, or call: 086 859 2968.