In Sweden, pasturing of cows is mandatory from early June to mid-September. The young stock graze outdoors then, too. What’s more, the roughage must also be produced in these summer months. During this busy period, the Nyman family hires six additional personnel who work in two shifts and help with milking, feeding and crop production.

Herbert and Anna-Britta inseminate their cows themselves. During the winter, the cows are divided into high-production and low-production groups. In the summer, they all pasture in one large group. To monitor such a large herd, the Nymans had bought a heat detection system in the past. Although the system shortened the calving interval by a number of days, the farmers were not really satisfied. The quality of the leg bands left much to be desired, and the system was not reliable enough. Moreover, time and time again it proved difficult to find a cow in heat in the barn.

“In principle, the solution is to separate the cows after milking, but that would have involved creating an extra separation area,” says Herbert. “And even then you can only pick out cows twice a day, after milking.”

Smarttag Neck: A better solution

From conversations with other farmers in the region they learned of another heat detection and positioning system on the market that makes it possible to quickly find that one cow in the group. This sounded good to them. SAC installed Nedap CowControl™ with Heat Detection, Health Monitoring and Cow Locating. Herbert says, “Everything in one Smarttag Neck. Exactly what we were looking for.”

Thanks to Cow Locating, Herbert can see where a cow is located with a quick check of his smartphone. The location is shown visually on the barn floor plan. It is also convenient for the employees, who always have access to a computer in the office. They also use Cow Locating to find cows that need to change groups, explains Herbert.

Moreover, they actively use the Health Monitoring function. One of the first signs a cow is not feeling well is often reduced or feed intake. As soon as that happens, Herbert gets an alert. Health Monitoring particularly proves its value during the first week after calving, he says.

“Our first clue that something is wrong with a cow used to be a drop in the milk yield. If you’ve already reached that point before you can intervene, you’re actually too late. Because once the milk production has dropped, the cow is very unlikely to reach her old level again during that lactation cycle. Now we can take action immediately. This prevents a huge drop in production. Naturally that boosts profitability, but it is also much better for the cow.”