The white beef cattle watch curiously as Eric Bonnot enters the pasture. His animals – 85 cows and an equal number of young stock – are covered in the winter period and all graze outdoors from 15 April onwards. Later, around September, they spend a period inside to finish calving. Then the cows go outside with their calves for a few weeks, until 20 November. On that date, Bonnot begins insemination season.

In that period, he also decides which yearlings should be inseminated. In principle, these are the oldest and largest animals, from about 14 months of age. Smaller and younger animals wait another year. If yearlings do not become pregnant the first time, Bonnot gives them one more chance the following year.

In the past that happened on a regular basis. In fact, until two years ago Eric Bonnot was not really happy about his reproduction results. His representative from Elva Novia, the central France organisation for cattle improvement, suggested he give Nedap COWcontrol™ with Heat Detection a try. Bonnot was immediately interested. “I wanted to serve as a test case,” Bonnot said. “I was curious as to whether heat detection would work for beef cattle too.”

Sometimes the light also flashes to signal a warning from the Health Monitoring system. “The first year I didn’t pay too much attention to those,” admits the beef cattle farmer. That changed one time after he ignored a warning. “I got a notification for a cow that had stopped eating, but I paid it no attention. Afterwards it turned out that she must have had an incipient respiratory infection. By the time I realized it, the cow had to be culled because the infection had become too bad. The system was right after all.”

“If the red light flashes a health alert, I go look at the cow straight away.”

Since then he takes the warnings from Health Monitoring very seriously indeed. “If the red light flashes, and it is an Eating warning, I go have a look at the cow straight away.’ For Bonnot, Nedap COWcontrol™ with Heat Detection has grown to become a valuable part of his herd management. “The biggest benefit for me is the time savings,” says Bonnot. “I no longer have to spend a lot of time in the barn to see whether animals are in heat, because I no longer miss a single heat cycle.”

Bonnot is content with the system. He now has his animals categorized in separate groups in the system, which gives him even better insight into the herd’s status. When asked if there are any disadvantages to the system he is at a loss. “Putting on the collars can sometimes be a bit tricky, but apart from that I can’t think of a single thing.’”

He firmly believes Nedap COWcontrol™ with Heat Detection and Health Monitoring is an asset for the beef cattle industry. “The system works great; it detects a lot more heat activity than I can.” He knows that other beef cattle farmers are also interested. Bonnot currently uses the system as a test case for Elva Novia, but he has now decided to buy it himself. “Then I am going to get collars for all the animals straight away, even for the young stock.”