Equipment like wearable collars for cattle can provide farmers with tangible results and financial savings, by enabling them to make better decisions for both their animals and their business.
Now more than ever before, farmers are having to make tough decisions and really consider where their farming dollar is going. On any given day they are thinking about pasture management, feed, growth, production, the pay-out, mating, calving, rising costs, and all the other things they have to keep in the back of their mind – the weather, the cost of living, even the upcoming election. On their own, these can seem like small things.
But put it all together, they have a lot on their plate. It might not seem like now’s the time to be investing in new gadgets. But for the farmers who have already invested in Allflex Collars, the tech is proving a game changer for animal health, work-life balance and their bottom line, ultimately helping them extract more from every farming dollar.
In a market where interest rates have doubled and the pay-out has dropped, it’s critical for farmers to prioritise spending on a system that offers true value and choose a partner that will help them get the most from the product they are investing in.
MSD Animal Health’s SenseHub Dairy with Allflex Collars stands out from the herd as a means of detecting heat, monitoring cow health, and providing live rumination data – which can help manage feed efficiency.
Allflex Collars are used on 6 million cows worldwide and over 700+ Dairy farms in New Zealand, including those owned by Devon Dairy Farms in the Hawea Flats, Central Otago.
General manager Erynne Fildes installed Allflex Monitoring technology on the entire milking herd and their rising two-year heifers on the 3000ha farm in May 2021, which she says has been transformational for business.
“My number one driver was taking the load off my staff, giving them better work-life balance, reducing fatigue and accidents that can result from that. But when I learned more about the health monitoring, I was sold on them.”
One of the Devon Dairy Farms’ managers Jamie Burrows says the installation of collars in her herd had been game-changing for herself and the staff on the unit she manages.
The collars quickly proved useful after being fitted when they detected udder infections in several cows heading into the dry-off phase and later when they transitioned from their mainly pasture-based diet to fodder beet.
“The data shows me any animal in distress before you can see it is. By regularly logging into the system to see what’s happening, I was able to save time and money by intervening early,” Burrows says.
By the time mating rolled around that first year, Burrow’s confidence in the technology’s heat detection made things simpler than when they used heat patches.
Farmers and farm managers using Allflex Collars have widely reported a 1-2% decrease in mortality rates over the first 12 months of use, due to early illness detection.
Meanwhile, those using the technology typically see an increase in three and six-week in-calf rates.
SenseHub Dairy with Allflex Collars allows workers to breathe more easily over busy periods like calving and mating – something Kane Brisco, a contract milker in his first year on the boundary of Egmont National Park, could attest to.
Brisco says since having the collars fitted the dairy shed in the mornings during mating became a one-man operation, allowing him to take time off over that period for the first time in 14 years.
Partnering with Allflex also gives farmers access to its superior wraparound support. Regional trainers, tech staff and R&D experts are just a phone call away, to ensure farmers have access to everything they need.
“What’s important to our customers is knowing they will have our support for the life of the solution they are investing in,” says Pauline Calvert, MSD’s New Zealand Livestock Business Unit Lead.
Source : https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/300911516/leading-the-way-in-animal-health-monitoring-technology
