CENSORTEC CowControl is a collar-based activity monitoring system that gives dairy farmers heat alerts, health alerts, and custom management reports to improve their herd’s fertility and production.
Two Cork farmers explain how the system has benefitted their farms. ‘You can’t put a price on safety,’ says Oliver Lynch, Skibbereen. ‘I was never comfortable letting bulls out with cows as we have young children who help out on the farm.
Also I don’t like getting a relief milker while the bulls were out.’ Oliver installed Censortec CowControl powered by Nedap in 2021, which meant he was able to switch to using 100% AI in his herd.
Bulls were always a safety issue, and he felt relieved to be able to eliminate them from the farm. ‘As well as the bulls, we spent a lot of time on tail painting and watching cows in heat. Cow- Control has stopped all that and saved us a huge amount of time.
It’s like a pair of eyes watching the cows 24/7. We dipped our toe in the water with sexed semen in 2022 and used it on the heifers, and last year we used it on some of the cows too. We’re planning on increasing the units of sexed semen we use again this year.
I think the timing of AI is critical when you’re using sexed semen,’ Oliver explains.
‘With the collars, you can see when the cow has been in heat for the optimum time and make a call whether to give her sexed semen based on that. It’s a big plus. We’d 85% calved in five weeks this year, and that’s using 100% AI and relying on the collars for our heat detection 100% as well.’
Oliver installed an Alfco drafting gate at the same time as he installed CowControl.
‘The auto-drafting is very simple. I click a button on my phone and any cows in heat are automatically drafted during milking. It’s a game-changer at the end of the year when you’re drying off cows. Put the list of cows you need into the app, and they’re drafted with no stress and you’re not manually separating cows. It makes it very safe,’ comments Oliver.
Dick and Eoghan O’Neill, who are based in Ballymacoda, installed Censortec CowControl six years ago.
‘Cow numbers had gone up to 260, and we felt there just had to be an easier way to manage our heat detection,’ Dick explains.
‘We were watching the cows, and tail painting, and someone had to go and watch the heifers on an out farm every morning too.’
CowControl has made Dick and Eoin’s life far easier by reducing labour and helping to improve results.
‘We’re quite happy with the system. You learn how to use the information you’re given, and when you get the results you put more faith in it,’ says Dick.
‘As well, it’s been very reliable. We haven’t had any issues with the collars in the six years since we installed them.’
They started calving on January 15th, and at the time of writing (March 15th), they have only 25 cows left to calve.
‘The collars make the whole thing very compact. They can’t take all the credit, but they’re definitely a big help!’ laughs Dick.
‘They have cut out a lot of the labour around heat detection, and our submission rates have gone up. We’d a 9% empty rate this year.’
Censortec are based in Killorglin, Co. Kerry.
To learn more about Censortec’s services, call 066 9713000 or visit Censortec.com
