Monitoring Collars – Any Practical Issues?

[Claudiobri]

Hi everyone, I'm a young dairy farmer managing around 400 cows near Turin, Italy. I'm currently considering implementing livestock monitoring technologies (ear tags, collars, etc.) to track my herd's health, reproduction, and behavior.

Does anyone have firsthand experience with these devices? I'd particularly like to understand any limitations or practical issues you've encountered during daily use.

Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Claudio

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Hello and welcome. There are people here that have a few dairy cows but no professional dairymen that I know of.
I have a free subscription to Progressive Dairy magazine. It comes out every 2 weeks and you can get the on line edition by going here https://www.agproud.com/subscription-apply Click on the any other country link. It seems like every big dairy in the US uses them. You could contact some of the sellers of these collar systems from their ads in the magazine.

Most of the people on here that have collars on their cows just have the leather kind, maybe with a bell. There is the Got Milk section on this forum I hope you post there.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Claudio, being a commercial dairy farmer you probably don't have much time to play on the internet. But if you have a minute I have a few questions. What breed of cows do you milk? Where in Italy is Turin located? What do you feed your herd? Do you raise your own replacement heifers? Is your milk used to make wonderful Italian cheese?

 

[ez14.]

I'm a AI tech for Genex I breed at 2 farms that use collars. It sure as heck beats having to heat detect when you're only at a place for a few minutes to breed! I work with the Genex herd monitor and the lely system I like lelys system better.

There is a bit of a learning curve because some cows will show heats on the system quite often when they're not actually in heat and others will only trigger it when they're actually in heat. So when you're making your breeding list for the day you'll want to check the time line of there entire lactation and just make sure that it makes sense for them to be in heat at this time. Some cows show really strong heats on the system and some barely trigger it. You will find yourself breeding cows that don't visually appear to be in heat at all but they often stick even though you never would have detected the heat naturally. Also on the down side though sometimes you'll see cows in a raging heat that never trigger the heat detection so you'll just want to learn your system and still pay attention when you're around the cows

The other thing is that you'll want to stay in contact with who sets your system up because sometimes there is issues with the system and you'll want to make sure you know who can help you

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

So,, you are a cow pollinator.

My AI tech comes to our place. By me just answering a few questions on the phone he says OK I'll be there at 2PM or whatever. So far cows that he AIed stuck the first try. He has a catalog of bulls that is a like a Playboy magazine of lovely udders. Since he works the local dairies he knows the qualities of popular bulls and advises which ones to use. He, also knows the bloodlines of my cows so I do not breed them too close. Since there is no vet around here that sees cows here and all the AI guys does involves the reproduction and health of cows he is a main source of information. For instance, calf care or how to deal with a retained placenta. He also syncs beef cow herds and AIs them,

These cows that show heat on the system when not in heat, Are these cows that ride others because of dominance issues?

 

[Claudiobri]

Claudio, being a commercial dairy farmer you probably don't have much time to play on the internet. But if you have a minute I have a few questions. What breed of cows do you milk? Where in Italy is Turin located? What do you feed your herd? Do you raise your own replacement heifers? Is your milk used to make wonderful Italian cheese?

Hey there! Between milking, feeding, and keeping everything running smoothly, there's not much time to be online, but I really feel that talking to others is a really big help! To answer your questions: I mainly milk Holsteins, with a few Brown Swiss in the mix. Turin is in northern Italy, in the Piedmont region. My herd gets a balanced diet of corn silage, hay, alfalfa, and grain. Yes, I raise my own replacement heifers: it's key to maintaining a strong herd and ensuring good genetics! As for the cheesemaking: Absolutely! Our milk often goes into making Piedmont's famous cheeses like Raschera and Castelmagno.

 

[Claudiobri]

I'm a AI tech for Genex I breed at 2 farms that use collars. It sure as heck beats having to heat detect when you're only at a place for a few minutes to breed! I work with the Genex herd monitor and the lely system I like lelys system better.

There is a bit of a learning curve because some cows will show heats on the system quite often when they're not actually in heat and others will only trigger it when they're actually in heat. So when you're making your breeding list for the day you'll want to check the time line of there entire lactation and just make sure that it makes sense for them to be in heat at this time. Some cows show really strong heats on the system and some barely trigger it. You will find yourself breeding cows that don't visually appear to be in heat at all but they often stick even though you never would have detected the heat naturally. Also on the down side though sometimes you'll see cows in a raging heat that never trigger the heat detection so you'll just want to learn your system and still pay attention when you're around the cows

The other thing is that you'll want to stay in contact with who sets your system up because sometimes there is issues with the system and you'll want to make sure you know who can help you

Hey, thanks for sharing your experience! I've been looking into these systems and had a few questions about their limitations.
1. Have you ever compared it with another heat detection system (e.g., SenseHub, CowManager, Nedap)? If so, how did it compare?
2. Do you use the collar for rumination and health tracking too? If so, how reliable is it?
3. Curious if boluses were considered instead of collars. Any reason they're not as widely used for heat detection?
4. How long does the battery last on these collars? And do they still work well in areas with poor signal or WiFi?
5. Setup & troubleshooting: How often do you run into issues that require support? Is it mostly software glitches, sensor failures, or something else?

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Dang, Claudio. I thought you were a tinhorn just thinking about going high tech. I read my 'high tech' Processive Dairy every 2 weeks and I'm amazed at when they're doing, milking 1000s of cows. Seems like the only dairies left in this area have all gone organic because they get a higher price for the milk. I don't remember seeing collars on the cows. They keep them free stall barns and mow the pastures for green chop so the extra price for grass feed organic.

I have a very small low tech operation. I raise my Jersey heifer calves thanks to sex selected AI. The cattle live in the pastures where they are grass fed but also get feed and alfalfa that is not 'organic'. I am only milking one cow to raise calves with the milk and it's a full time job. Including the making of dairy products, feeding calves and the clean up. She is milked with this antique Surge machine. It hangs from her belly by a strap and is broken down and washed in the kitchen.


These are my cows. The black face one is my best cow. She is 14 years old and has produced many calves. She is the classic kind of Jersey, not one with Holstein in the background.


This is last years heifer crop. The collars on them are the kind you lead and tie them with.





This is the ultimate replacement heifer, born from my old cow a week ago.

 

[farmerjan]

Hi and welcome to CT forum.

I have been a milk tester with United DHIA for over 35 years. I have several dairies that use a monitor system of some sort. 2 are DeLaval, one is from Select Sires, that I know of... and I am not sure what the robot dairies are using although 2 have Lely systems and one has GEA .
Every one that has the different monitoring systems have all said they like what they have. So, I cannot say which is better. One uses a neck strap with monitor, a couple have eartags, and one uses an "ankle bracelet"....I think that one is Alfa-Laval....
There does not seem to be many complaints about many false heat indications, or missed heats, being recorded. I don't see where it is any worse than a cow riding another one and the one standing not being in heat.
For every dairy, they all say it saves a tremendous amount of man labor of not having to "stand around" and watch the cows near as much... Several of the systems record their activity, walking, rest periods...eating times, amount of time spent rumenating, temperature of the cow, some are programmed in with their milking system (robots) so the farmer can see spikes in milk production and things like that too.
Several use them on their heifers in the breeding age group too.

I have not heard anyone saying the batteries are a problem. I will ask some of the farmers on my next trip to the different ones if they have any complaints or good things to specially say about the system they are using.