From hand-written 4x6 paper note cards and breeding wheels to cowside data entry and real-time performance alerts, dairy farm technology has come a long way.

With data collected from every area of your farm, a centralized location is needed to keep, analyze, and view the thousands of data points coming in each day. Integrations, like those available to DairyComp users in VAS PULSE Platform, connect your on-farm technologies and your herd management software. They eliminate the need to jump from platform to platform, creating a single place to analyze your data – saving time and money.

Here are four herd data integrations to help connect your management tools in one place.

1. Performance monitoring

Milk data is among the most valuable data collected on any farm. Integrating this with herd management software, whether from a parlor system or milk testing, allows you to view data that impacts milk production alongside milk trends to make more informed management decisions. You can identify production trends and adjust rations, milking routines, or management practices to maximize milk output.

You can also track individual cow performance, pinpoint outliers, and detect early signs of health issues like mastitis, reproductive problems, or nutritional deficiencies.

2. Activity monitoring systems

Combining activity monitoring data with herd management software supports more accurate heat detection, enabling more timely breeding decisions. Overall, this leads to more precise reproductive management and improved conception rates.

Integrating activity monitoring software with a herd management program also lets you view all your cows’ data in one centralized location, from their CowCard information to activity levels. This makes it easier to spot behavioral trends and catch potential issues early.

Take analyzing reproductive protocol success, for instance. When a cow is bred, her activity level index is automatically recorded alongside the breeding event entry. Leveraging specific reports in your herd management program, you can view trends in conception rates, services per conception, and more alongside activity levels to help determine the optimal activity level for breeding to maximize conception opportunities.

3. Sort gate integrations

Sort gate integrations can help accurately and efficiently identify, evaluate, and treat animals. Combining data from other farm technologies, like a monitoring system, with your herd management software allows you to automate sorting by easily creating a filtered list of animals that can be sent to the sort gate system.

For instance, when your monitoring system generates an individual cow alert, the gate automatically sorts her into a separate area after milking so you can perform a cowside evaluation, herd health task, or breeding. This helps minimize pen disruption and time spent looking for cows while reducing lockup time.

4. Genetic and genomic integrations

Integrated genetic and genomic data can help you make more informed breeding decisions. This data provides insights into traits including milk production, fertility, disease resistance, and longevity. Selectively breeding cows with desirable traits leads to a healthier, more productive herd.

Genomic data can reveal an animal’s genetic potential. You can tailor reproduction decisions to each animal’s performance when combined with herd management software. For example, you can easily see a heifer’s genomic values and view them side-by-side with her health events as a calf and heifer. Knowing her health history and genetic potential helps you decide whether to continue her genetics within the herd, breed her to beef, use her as a recipient, or cull her.

Pick a herd management partner that makes integrations easy

VAS’ goal is to create a centralized place for your data so you can make impactful decisions about your herd. Derrick Josi of Wilsonview Dairy in Oregon says maintaining a centralized approach to data management was a key factor when selecting new technology to implement on his farm.

“I wanted an activity monitoring system that worked well with our herd management software without too much hassle,” explains Josi. “With DairyComp, we didn’t have to limit our options because it works with a variety of on-farm technologies.”

VAS is committed to offering integration choices that meet the evolving needs of dairy farmers. Bring your data together in one place. Explore the entire list of integrations included in VAS’ herd management subscriptions by visiting VAS.com.