"Two taps on my phone, and I see exactly where the cow is standing."
Who?
Bert Versteeg
Dairy farmer
Where?
Bornerbroek, The Netherlands
About the farm
- 140 dairy cows
- 70 calves
- Run by Bert and Anja Versteeg and their son Robert
Nedap solutions
Results
Work better and faster
Cow Locating saves time and aggravation
Bert Versteeg from Bornerbroek was the first dairy farmer in the Netherlands to start using Nedap Cow Locating in November 2014. “Being able to quickly and easily find cows saves a lot of time and aggravation,” he says. “‘Two taps on my phone and I see exactly where the cow is standing.”
Bert and Anja Versteeg (both 51) and their son Robert (18) run a business with 140 dairy cows and 70 calves. In August 2014 they doubled the length of the free stall barn so their farm can gradually grow to 160 cows.
Cow LocatingAn immediate return on investment
See right where the cow is located
After the evening milking, Bert Versteeg sits at the PC in the tank room clicking the cows flagged for attention by Nedap CowControl™ with Heat Detection. Then he then prepares the straws. “I handle the artificial insemination myself, and thanks to Cow Locating, I no longer have to walk back and forth along that line of over a hundred cows to find the next one I’m looking for,’” he says. “I see right where she is.”
With the barn floor plan on his smartphone, Versteeg can easily find the cows he wants to move to the dry group and the cows that will be scanned for pregnancy by the veterinarian. “We do this every four to six weeks, often after the evening milking,” he says. “This is a benefit that represents immediate return on investment because we no longer waste time looking for cows.”
Accurate data to make the right changes
Easily find cows that need your attention
Versteeg can also easily locate cows in need of attention. The cows are fitted with the Smarttag Leg, which monitors the standing/lying behavior, and Smarttag Neck to monitor their feed intake and rumination behavior.
“Recently we kept getting an attention alert from a Smarttag Leg telling us one cow in the old part of the barn was not lying down enough, so we moved her to the new section,” Versteeg says. He picks up the tablet lying in easy reach on the kitchen table. With a few taps on the screen he easily calls up the lying pattern of cow 1160. “Look. Now you can see she has gone back to lying enough again.”
Little things make a big difference
Health Monitoring makes you aware of things before you have a problem
Versteeg says he is making more and more use of Nedap Health Monitoring. He regularly walks among the cows with his smartphone while routinely following up on cows with an attention alert. “I always check on cows with multiple health alerts, such as those that are eating, walking or lying too little,” Versteeg says. “If they start eating less, there is something going on.”
“It makes you aware of things before you have a problem,” Anja Versteeg says. Nedap Health Monitoring helps the Versteegs keep a closer tabs on things, and they feel that gives them peace of mind.
Accurate and consistent
"We hardly miss a single cow in heat anymore."
Heat detection is naturally also integrated: the Smarttag Leg is a pedometer; the Smarttag Neck registers the licking and mounting behavior of cows in heat. “For heat detection I trust wholeheartedly in the system,” says Versteeg. “It is 95 percent accurate. We hardly miss a single cow in heat anymore.”
When the heifers are 12 months old, they get a Smarttag Neck, too. Once they come into heat for the third time, they are inseminated. Now they calve at 23.5 months, with an average of 1.4 inseminations. “Those are respectable figures,” Versteeg says. “What’s more, this is much safer because we no longer have to have our own bull in among the heifers.”
Quick and easy
Two clicks and you have the cow on the screen
The combination of Nedap CowControl™ with Heat Detection, Health Monitoring and Cow Locating makes the work easier and saves time. And, as the number of cows in the operation increases, saving time is going to be increasingly important. “In the future, we plan to grow our herd, so we will enjoy the benefits even more,” says Versteeg. ”
And the great thing is … I’ve always hated using computers, but this is super simple to use. Two clicks and you have the cow on the screen. Quick and easy.” The mobile applications with clear buttons have also become indispensable. “You have additional monitoring without having to be there yourself. What could be better?”
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