Joe O’Rourke
Farm owner
Moate, Westmeath
Dairy farmer Joe O’Rourke works with multiple software and hardware systems to run his business. How efficient is it, if all these systems communicate seamlessly with each other? Alfco, Censortec, Cormac Tagging and Nedap have been working together in partnership for several years, which gives Joe unprecedented advantage and convenience.
In 2018, Joe O’Rourke, who farms outside Moate, Co. Westmeath, upgraded his Alfco transponder-based drafting gate to the new Alfco app linked gate. Joe milks 230 cows, with the help of one full time staff member, and two relief milkers.
‘We aim to have the cups on for 6am, so myself and Sean, who’s with us full time, don’t milk in the evening. We wanted to make the system simpler for the relief milkers, so the gate was the first step. After we installed the new gate, I started researching heat detection systems,’ explains Joe. Joe decided to install Censortec CowControl, powered by Nedap, for a few reasons.
‘When I started asking around, CowControl kept coming up in conversations. The fact that it integrated with our Alfco gate made it a no brainer,’ says Joe. ‘It’s seamless. Every morning, I check the CowControl app, and see what’s on heat. Then, when we start milking, I just hit ‘Start Milking’ on the Alfco app, and at the end of milking, any cow that needs to be served is standing in the drafting pen. It’s simple.’
‘The drafting gate is for where you have a one-man operation, and he must sort out cows. The drafting gate is a piece of equipment where you key in the cow’s number into a keypad at the front of the parlor pit and as the cow exits the milking parlor, it will separate that cow from the rest of the herd. It’s a huge labor-saving device,’ explains Kieran Kerrigan of Alfco.
Joe O'Rourke - Making heat detection in grass-based systems simple
Alfco drafting gates come with the option of being app controlled or controlled via a keypad placed in the milking parlor. ‘The gate has made life so much easier. It has never missed a cow, the worst case scenario is that you’ll have an extra cow in the pen if two come together, but that rarely happens,’ says Joe.
Before the app was introduced, Joe used the keypad in the parlor. ‘We still use the keypad for emergencies to pick cows out at the last minute. We hoof pare once a week, and if we miss a cow when we’re making our list for the parer, we can pick her out with the keypad as she goes through the parlor. The keypad is handy too for slow cows,’ Joe continues, ‘If there’s a slow cow holding up the row in the parlor, we draft her out with the keypad and bring her back in at the end to fill up the final row and get her milked out.’
Joe and Sean use Censortec CowControl, powered by Nedap, to manage the cows during pre-breeding. CowControl allows them to easily identify problem cows. Alfco then allows them to select those cows with ease. ‘Any cow calved over 40 days without a heat gets flagged on CowControl in the app, and then we pull them out using the Alfco gate. They get checked and any issues are sorted before we start breeding. The combination of CowControl and the Alfco gate is irreplaceable when it comes to managing the herd’s fertility.’
Joe previously used tail paint for heat detection, and found they had good success with it. ‘Tail paint worked well for us, but it was time consuming. It meant an extra person in the parlor twice a week. CowControl eliminated that, it’s a great labor saving. We used to use a teaser bull after the first three weeks, CowControl eliminated that too. I’m not getting any younger, and anything that makes life simpler is a big help,’ laughs Joe.
Joe has also begun using sexed semen on some cows now that he has reliable data from CowControl.
‘We’ve been using sexed semen on maiden heifers. CowControl tells us when the cow started her heat, and that information gives us confidence to use sexed semen on suitable cows.’
‘The system is irreplaceable on our farm now. I think farmers should put it in at least 6 weeks before breeding starts; cows are creatures of habit, and the system builds up a picture of their normal habits. When their habits change, you’ll get an alert, so it needs time to learn their habits, so to speak,’ explains Joe.
‘The information on the cows’ health is fascinating too,’ continues Joe. ‘Shortly after we put in CowControl last year, Sean found a cow down in the field at 6am. I could see on CowControl that she had been down since 1am in the morning. A fortnight ago we had a cow with a hard calving, and then she got milk fever. She was down for a day, but her activity actually didn’t return to normal until a week after she calved. Information like that changes how you treat cows.’
Joe O'Rourke - A 24/7 extra set of eyes for reliable health checks in the field
‘The partnership between all supply partners is really effective,’ adds Joe. ‘These companies understand our grass-based system, and the importance of compact calving. It makes a big difference when the person at the other end of the phone knows what you’re talking about. Any time I’ve had any questions about either CowControl or Alfco, I can get an answer on the phone. If it’s something that can’t be solved over the phone, there’ll be a technician arrive to the yard very quickly. It’s a great service.’
Censortec CowControl powered by Nedap have recently released NedapNow, which allows for integration with other software such as ICBF’s Herd Plus. This will reduce the need for dual data entry.
‘It’s brilliant now that CowControl works with ICBF. It means I don’t have input calving dates twice. It’s far more efficient,’ explains Joe. ‘The simplicity and the accuracy of the system is the beauty of it. If CowControl and Alfco were taken away from us in the morning, they’d be sorely missed!’
