Swiss Cows Send Texts to Announce They're in Heat

[NiceFarmer31]

When Christian Oesch was a boy on his family's hog farm, cellphones were a thing of the future. Now, Mr. Oesch tends a herd of dairy cattle and carries a smartphone wherever he goes. Occasionally he gets an SMS from one of his cows.

That is because Mr. Oesch, 60, who cares for a herd of 44 Red Holstein and Jersey dairy cows, is helping to test a device that implants sensors in cows to let farmers know when they are in heat. When that is the case, the device sends an SMS to the farmer's phone. The Swiss do not settle for half measures: the SMS can be in any one of Switzerland's three main languages -- German, French and Italian -- plus English or Spanish.

Complete Article : http://pakagri.blogspot.com/2012/10/swi ... ounce.html

 

[Nite Hawk]

Hmmm interesting, but very pricey!
At $1400 X 44 cows = $61,600
One could buy a top priced bull and have proper fencing etc to contain him, and he could more than likely detect what a sensor can"t, much more cheaply!!
I guess if the price came w-a-a-y down, and one only had afew cows and used AI it might be
useful...
Interesting article though..
Nite Hawk

 

[cow pollinater]

Pedometers were kind of suposed to do the same thing and alot of big dairies that bought into them learned to respect their breeders really quickly. A pedometer or a text message can catch the easy cows but experiance and daily observation is the only way to spot the hard ones(which are usually the most profitable cows).

 

[greybeard]

I'd love to see an instrument that is more accurate or more sensitive than a bull.

(wait till all them cows start texting each other tho--talk about drama queens at a hen party..)