Every dairy farmer’s goal is to have a healthy herd. Nedap CowControl is an important tool in this respect, as it ‘sees’ health problems that you do not see yourself. What are some of the financial and practical benefits of health monitoring using the Nedap SmartTag around the cow’s neck?
Nedap CowControl helps with the timely detection of abnormalities in eating or ruminating or of the inactivity of your cows. Nedap CowControl’s central dashboard provides an overview of cows in heat, gives alerts for cows that need immediate attention, and provides a handy to-do list for you or your staff as well as various reports. The figures are taken from the observations by the Nedap SmartTag around the cow’s neck. That SmartTag continuously monitors each cow and therefore ‘sees’ things that you do not see yourself. And that makes a big difference, e.g., in reducing the number of ketosis cases.
Research shows that cows suffering from acetonemia after calving eat and ruminate for 20 minutes a day less than during the non-lactation period. On average, these animals spend 40 minutes a day less on chewing (the time when a cow does not eat or ruminate), and are inactive for longer periods. Problems such as ketosis can be detected in advance by pro-actively monitoring individual cow behaviour during the transition period and comparing a cow’s behaviour with that of her group.
The cost of ketosis is $117 / €106 per case
A notable article was published in the well-respected Journal of Dairy Science. A number of researchers have calculated the cost of ketosis on a case-by-case basis, and it was found to be an average of $117 (€106). The breakdown of that amount says something about the impact of ketosis. It partly consists of direct costs such as mortality (26% or €28), but also indirect costs due to health problems in the future. This mainly concerns fertility problems (34% or €36) and future loss of milk production (26% or €28).
The total cost of ketosis is $289 / €262 per case
However, according to the scientists, the actual costs are even higher because ketosis leads to a demonstrably increased risk of uterine inflammation and abomasum displacement. If everything is added together, the total cost per ketosis case comes to $289 (€262). This can be broken down to 41% due to the costs of ketosis itself (the €106 per case), 33% due to higher uterine inflammation and 26% as a result of higher incidence of abomasum displacement.
Save $2.890 / €2,620 per year
With Nedap CowControl, you can recognise ketosis early because the Nedap SmartTag ‘sees’ that something is wrong with the cow before you notice it. In practice, a reduction in ketosis cases from 30 to 25% per year is fully achievable. Measured against the costs of ketosis of €262 per case as described above, this represents a saving of €2,620 per year on a herd of 200 cows!
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