Who
Alina Udink
Dairy Farmer
Where
Markelo, The Netherlands
About the farm
In the countryside of Markelo, Overijssel, Alina and Henk Udink, together with their employees, run a dairy farm with 235 milking cows and 110 youngstock. The size of the farm has led them to use Nedap technology to keep an eye on each individual cow. It works so well that they need the veterinarian for emergencies less often.
Learn how the Udink family and their veterinarian handle health management on their 235 head dairy herd
Alina explains why they chose to use Nedap CowControl as a monitoring system. “As your business grows, you deal with more things, and you need more data to respond quickly and effectively to cow care. You have less visibility on all the cows because you’re often busy with other tasks. CowControl is a great tool to help get and keep management in order, especially.”
The farmers use CowControl’s Health Monitoring, which provides direct insights into the cows’ behavior, allowing them to react faster to any irregularities. “We need the veterinarian less often because we’re always able to intervene earlier when something is wrong with a cow,” Alina firmly believes.
Twan van Bussel, veterinarian at De Vijf Heuvels Animal Clinic in Markelo and Veterinarian Combination Holten, is the family Udink’s regular vet. For the farms he supports from his veterinary practice, he believes it’s important to keep the cows healthy while maintaining strong milk production. “I’d much rather be called early to prevent health issues than be called to solve them. It works much better that way.” Monitoring systems like CowControl are a great tool for larger farms, those with staff, or farmers who are often busy with other tasks and can’t be in the barn all day, Van Bussel notes. “With CowControl, you can keep a better and more objective eye on everything.”
Looking to the future, Alina appreciates the technological advancements: “The biggest change is that you can act faster. The data gives you deep insights into how the cow is behaving. The system is very easy to use on your phone and laptop. The different Nedap solutions we’re currently using have become essential to us.”
Learn how the Udink family handles fertility and reproduction on their 235 head dairy herd.
