THE FUTURE IS IN THE EAR

'CowManager has paid for itself in the first year. I worked out that it’s saved us 300hrs/year on heat detection alone – so its been a great labour-saving investment! It gives us time to focus on other important jobs in the yard. The heat detection is extremely accurate, we don’t have as many tricky cows to AI, as they are being inseminated at the optimum time. Health alerts have allowed early intervention with a non-antibiotic treatment such as a rumen stimulant to get an ‘off form’ cow back to full health. We wouldn’t be without CowManager!'

‘Cow Manager has been a great addition to the management of the farm, I started DIY AI a few years ago and I was looking to improve conception to sexed semen. Cow Manager has done a great job on that, timing of AI is crucial with sexed and I know before each milking which cows are to be AI’d afterwards, there is no longer a bull running with the cows which makes the farm safer and no tail paint required. The health module is also fantastic for early detection of problems, and early intervention which is key to getting the cow back to full health which in turn reduces vet bills and milk loss.’

‘CowManager has allowed us monitor our cows 24/7 while out grazing. Running a robotic system with ABC grazing in place, we don’t see the cows as much. CowManager allows us to detect heat and health alerts continuously. We can intervene with less invasive, non-withdrawal antibiotics.’

'We wanted a monitoring system that would work on a grass-based system and be both reliable and accurate and that’s what we got with CowManager. When it comes to such a big investment on the farm we sit down as a family, and we look at it as a whole. If it can save you time, save you money and make you money, you have to invest in it – CowManager does all three. That’s how good the system is, it is lifechanging'

'Before we put in CowManager we were doing our heat detection with tail paint or teaser bulls. They show you the cows in heat, but they don't tell you what exact time frame to AI that cow. Obviously, the sexed semen is more of an expensive straw. You need to be getting into that window properly to have full effectiveness of that AI straw. CowManager really hit the nail on the head for us, It's unbelievable how accurate it is.'

‘CowManager has helped my herd’s fertility by giving me accurate heat alerts. I have been able to improve the timing of AI this past spring, and this has been a major factor in improving my conception to first service, which is at 78%. The herd has a 94% pregancy rate after a breeding season of 8 weeks of 100% AI. Fertility has always been a priority on my farm, and CowManager has helped me fine tune my system’

‘We initially wanted a system that would allow us monitor our heifers on an out farm, but when we started researching our options, we saw the benefits CowManager could bring to our herd as a whole. We found that CowManager was unique in the marketplace. Its rumination, eating, activity, resting and temperature monitoring mean that it is in a league of its own. Managing fresh cow’s health in a block calving system can be difficult, but CowManager makes it easy.’

‘We installed CowManager in February 2018 and haven’t looked back since. The installation was very straightforward, the lads came and tagged all the cows, and set up all the antennae. It’s brilliant the way the whole system is wireless, so there was no laying cables or tearing up concrete in the yard. We chose CowManager because we liked the fact that it’s an ear tag system. It’s very easy to swap a tag from a cull cow to a new heifer coming into the herd. It’s like having another person in the yard with the cows constantly.’

‘I installed CowManager because we were missing too many heats with visual heat detection, particularly when cows were indoors during the winter. We were also using stock bulls for breeding replacements and I wanted to eliminate them to make the farm safer. Since installing CowManager we have come to rely on it 100%. The major benefit of CowManager for us is that it takes the guess work out of breeding our cows. CowManager tells us the exact optimum time to AI, which is very useful.’

‘CowManager has allowed us to have better control of the fertility in our herd by detecting silent heats and enabling us to inseminate cows at the optimal time. The Fertility insights reports are great for flagging problem cows before the breeding season begins.’