“We’re identifying things before they’re an issue”

James Dallinger is based in the Waikato area, about twenty minutes from Cambridge. He milks 630 cross-bred cows on a 220-hectare farm.

“Putting in CowManager has made a huge difference with identifying things before they’re an issue.”

The ear sensor cow monitoring system recognises any possible symptoms of illness early on – one to two days before a cow even shows signs of being clinically ill. The system measures ear temperature combined with behaviour, rumination, eating and (in)activity, resulting in more accurate and earlier alerts. This gives dairy farmers actionable insights into their herd’s health, fertility, and even the transition phase.

Making Herd Management a Breeze

James is happy to apply the data to improve his herd management. “I can go into the CowManager platform and I can adjust which direction the cows get drafted, what the parameters are.” He uses the Auto Drafting functionality plus the Fertility Module to make breeding season that much easier.

“I can draft the ones with sexed semen one way and have the others drafted into a different direction. For the cow on heat we have them set for the AM milking. The AI tech comes in the morning, so they’re all in the pen waiting for him. For the ones we’ve health drafted, they’re in the other direction back onto the yard.”

Auto Drafting with CowManager

Automating this process with the drafting gate and relying on the CowManager data, has a made a ton of difference. Before using the drafting integration, James would get up early to put the right cows in a group, even on his days off when he had milkers. He’d stay on for about half an hour into milking, just in case another cow came into heat.

“Now, with the integration”, James says, “If the cows transition into their full heat they’ll be drafted straight away. It’s a bit of stress relief as well.”

He used to have a second person be present in the cow shed to help out with identifying cows on heat and manually drafting them. Now, he doesn’t have to worry about having that second person in staff anymore. “It’s not a worry anymore because CowManager’s doing all that.”