Nedap enables heat stress detection on dairy farms
New feature allows for immediate action
Cows that experience heat stress are more likely to have health problems and produce less milk. Nedap Heat Stress, a new feature within CowControl, detects heat stress and shows the degree and duration of the heat stress experienced by the cows at pen level. This enables dairy farmers to take immediate measures to optimize pen conditions.
Timely intervention
The Nedap CowControl monitoring system detects four levels of heat stress: no heat stress, mild heat stress, severe heat stress and very severe heat stress, based on a widely used, scientific method. The heat stress calculation is updated in real time every 15 minutes. The herd overview shows both the heat stress level and the duration of the heat stress at pen/group level. The dairy farmer can then immediately take measures such as turning on the fans or sprinkler system. A validation study on test farms has shown that such measures directly lead to a reduction of the heat stress level by at least one level.
Effect on health and milk production
Jeroen Waterink, product owner at Nedap, indicates that the Heat Stress function is also important in results analyses: “Nedap CowControl offers the possibility to make notes of events and measures taken, such as turning on the sprinkler system on a hot summer day. This helps the dairy farmer to explain performance differences in result analyses.”
Reducing or preventing heat stress is important to maintain the health and milk production of the cows. “Of course, every extra litre of milk results in a higher feed profit. But the calves of dry cows that have not been exposed to heat stress also have a structurally higher birth weight and develop better after birth,” Waterink underlines the importance of timely detection.
Available in Nedap Now
Nedap Heat Stress is available within Nedap Now, Nedap’s Cloud-based software platform. Dairy farmers and Business Partners can easily expand their current CowControl monitoring system with this new functionality, in order to sustainably improve the return on the dairy farm.
Learn more about Nedap Now