Turning Up The Heat!

I don’t normally promote the use of technology unless there is a significant cost benefit in doing so.  Technology can sometimes complicate systems, add extra ongoing costs and replace basic people skills.

Some dairy farmers have purchased auto heat detection and cow monitoring systems over the last two years with the aid of grant funding.  After assessing the effectiveness of these systems here are my conclusions.

• Yes they do work as they say they should.
• They save huge amounts of time.
• They are better than humans at picking up cows on heat etc., consistently.
• Shop around as there is a lot of variation between different products.
• They pay for themselves very quickly.
• They tell you when to serve cows which the human eye cannot.
• Unfortunately, they don’t help a person develop their livestock skills as people can just look at a screen rather than looking at the animals. 

They are another management tool which needs to be used in the correct way to get the maximum benefit.  They can produce a lot of data which is only as good as how well the data is used.

There will be another round of the Farm Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) opening later this spring and heat detection units, collars / tags etc., are on the list and will be available again, as it saves valuable labour, improves cow health and welfare and improves overall cow productivity.

To discuss grants and how they can benefit my farm contact Emily Bunn at emilybunn@fcgagric.com or Tel: 07944 680469.