Information about your dairy herd is within reach of a wifi connection but sorting through the data is a problem many can struggle with. In the dairy industry, farmers are presented with more details about their cows than ever before due to the utilization of cow monitoring systems. Users of CowManager are no different. Generally having too much information is a good problem to have, but it can be hard to decipher what is the most important to daily operations.
While it is essential to know which cows are in heat through activity tracking, this kind of monitoring can also be beneficial when thinking about a cow’s overall fertility. This is where CowManager’s Fertility Insights data comes in. CowManager users can easily access essential fertility data within the Fertility module to learn about potential abortions, irregular heats, and more.
Here are seven reasons CowManager users benefit from the data presented in Fertility Insights:
- Abortion detection: If any feature of Fertility Insights should be used, it is this one. According to CowManager Research and Technical Consultant Ray Nebel, while using Fertility Insights on dairies, cows were found to have aborted due to the information collected, instead of right before dry off.
“I was working with a farm in Utah, and the first time they looked at the data, there were six suspected cows who had aborted,” Nebel explained. “We checked all those cows and all six had aborted.”
With technology like this, farmers are empowered to take action and provide the proper care to cows of suspected abortion. If the cows have not aborted, the data may be a good indication that something is wrong and can be addressed with a vet. Finding aborted cows earlier makes it easier to decide to cull or re-bred the cow. This is a money saver.
- No heat after calving: If a cow has calved and has not had a return to her normal cycle, Fertility Insights is able to highlight the cows that need to be looked at to see if there is anything going on with their bodies directly after calving to see why they are not cycling again. Finding non-cycling cows earlier results in a higher first heat conception rate!
- Irregular heat-Short interval: Fertility Insights can also indicate if a cow may be cystic. The vet can determine further if treatment should begin to get the cow back into normal ovulation patterns.
- Irregular heat-Absence of heat: A cow’s absence of heat can be recognized by Fertility Insights. This can happen after an abortion, in young heifers and cows, in certain breeds, current body conditions, or even past adverse calving conditions.
Breeding cows with irregular heats will result in a lower chance for a pregnancy.
- Insemination without success: Tracking when a cow was inseminated is standard practice but knowing if the cow is pregnant, or not as soon as possible, can decrease instances of missed heats and other interventions.
- Cycling: When all is right with the herd, it is still helpful to be informed and cut back on overall worry. Cows on list can be bred and have a high chance to get pregnant!
- Pregnant: The sooner a farmer knows a cow is pregnant the sooner they can take the proper steps to help her stay healthy and prepare for calving.
The Fertility Insights reports are very helpful with preg checks. For example, the ‘Inseminated and not confirmed pregnant’ list which gives a lot of information about the cow’s reproduction status that could be helpful during the preg check of your vet!
Farmers using Fertility Insights have shared the benefits it has made to their operations.
“On the breed list, I use Fertility Insights to get more information on a suspicious cow,” Tiffany Schneider, herdsmanager at Paulus Dairy LLC, said. “For example, I’ll look at a pregnant cow that maybe just had an increase of activity. If the increase is low and Fertility Insight says ‘pregnant’ I might let her go instead of checking her.”
By being able to see cows with abnormal activity, farmers and herd managers can make quick decisions on how to treat their cows by cross-referencing their current state in their cycles.
Users of CowManager find checking Fertility Insights an important data set when looking at the herd as a whole.
Knowing that so much data is being stored, keep in mind that information retrieved by CowManager can be shared with the people essential to the farm operations. With the help of MultiView, employees and advisors can see the information most important to their role. For example, the nutritionist can see the nutrition information, vets the reproduction information, and the breeder can see which cows are in heat for timely insemination.
CowManager is unique in its system, as it can provide farms with the most important information about their herds. It is a matter of a daily check of your reports.
For more information on Fertility Insights, read this article: CowManager Introduces Fertility Insights and watch this video.
Would you like to get in touch with a local representative or CowManager user for more information? Please contact us on our website.
