Who?

PJ O‘Donoghue

Dairy farmer

Where?

County Cork, Ireland

About the farm

  • 140 dairy cows
  • Grazing as many days as possible
  • Spring calving

Nedap solutions

Nedap CowControl
Heat Detection
Health Monitoring

Results

Peace of mind
Trusting the system that all cows get the attention they need
Labor efficiency
More cows with the same amount of labor
Veterinary care
More targeted on problem cows
Production efficiency
More milk with the same amount of cows

PJ:

“The main advantage of Nedap CowControl for me, is that someone is there looking after the cows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

PJ O’Donoghue runs a grass based dairy farm in County Cork, South of Ireland. His 140 dairy cows go out to graze as many days as possible during the year, but there is adequate housing when weather is bad. Some of his land is mixed, but mostly it’s good grazing ground for summertime. The vast majority of his cows comes in for insemination in a time frame of three weeks. “Nedap CowControl gives me the tools to control and monitor those cows in that very very busy time” he explains, “The main advantage of Nedap CowControl for me, is that someone is there looking after the cows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Heat detection

From tailpaint to automatic heat detection

Before using Nedap CowControl, PJ used to tailpaint his cows. This involved a lot of labor, once or twice a week. He needed to watch those tailpaints by constantly monitoring the cows. PJ: “Now, with Nedap CowControl it is there in front of me on the computer. Having used this system for a number of months, I know now that it is excellent in accuracy and I can trust in completely”. Additionally, veterinary care for the cow goes much quicker and targeted than he used to be able to do before, because he can check if a cow has been eating, ruminating and if a cow needs attention.

Health monitoring

"Peace of mind is all that matters"

PJ finds the Health Monitoring of Nedap CowControl most beneficial. “in the mornings when I wake up, the first thing I do is check the cows on the PC at home. If there is an urgent attention, I walk out the door and check her straight away. As often is the case when there isn’t an urgent attention, I sit down and relax and have that extra cup of tea. Peace of mind is what it’s all about” PJ exemplifies. Whenever PJ has been away for a few hours, checking his herd via his phone or PC immediately brings back the peace of mind.

The ultimate goal PJ wanted to achieve using Nedap CowControl was to use the cows that he has as efficiently as possible, because he is at his stocking rate limit. He didn’t want to employ somebody, now Nedap CowControl does the work for him.

 

Check health monitoring

Read more success stories

See more Nedap technology in action across farms in Ireland:

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John Phelan
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“Higher submission rates, higher conception rates, less time down in the field watching.”
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Morgan O‘Sullivan
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“It‘s like a second set of eyes on the cows when we‘re off the farm.”
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Brian Mooney
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"It’s not how it changes it, it‘s how it keeps things the same."
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Enda Doran
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“Nedap allows me to be free to spend time with the family”