“It has increased our pregnancy rate from 25% to 33%.”
Who?
Carl Carlson
Farm owner
Where?
Pennock, Minnesota, U.S.A.
About the farm
- Multi-generation family farm since 1896
- 1800 cows
- GEA CowScout, powered by Nedap, for heat detection and health monitoring
Nedap solutions
Results
Curtney Carlson:
“You’ve got to keep up with the times, or it seems like you’re going backward.”
Carlson Dairy has grown a lot since it was established in 1896. The Carlson family purchased the DairyProQ® with CowScout from GEA, powered by Nedap, in 2017. Today, the Carlson family efficiently manages a herd of 1,800 using Health Monitoring and Heat Detection solutions.
“We’re able to get heifers bred when we want, and we’re getting earlier calving time.”
Thanks to Nedap Heat Monitoring, Carlson Dairy employees don’t have to check pens for heats which has been a big time-saver.
The dairy has a separate heifer facility about 1,000 feet from the main barn. Rather than spending more time in the heifer barn monitoring heats, the system automatically sends an alert when heifers are in heat. Overall, the pregnancy rate has increased from 25% to 33%, and heifers are calving earlier.
“We can breed cows when we want to breed them instead of breeding them early just to make sure we get them pregnant,” says Carl. “We’re able to hold back our voluntary waiting period knowing we can get her pregnant on the first or second service.”
Carl Carlson:
“Technology makes it appealing for the kids; they’re interested in coming back.”
Technology has also helped the Carlson family engage its next generation on the farm. Carl has two kids in college who are excited to share what the family is doing with friends and professors.
“Being up-to-date with technology makes it really appealing for the younger generation,” says Carl. “It makes it intriguing. Maybe they would want to do this one day, too.”
Carl Carlson:
“We’re able to monitor cow health a lot better.”
“We can tell when a cow is not ruminating or if her eating time has decreased,” says Carl. “We’re able to monitor cow health a lot better.”
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