Navigator picks cows needing attention

Robotic milking has come of age in the last few years, but now that we’ve ‘harvested’ the crop, is there anything else technology can do for us to make life easier, or more importantly improve the bottom line?

Catching this writer’s eye in the Fieldays hi-tech cavern that was the DeLaval stand was the company’s Herd Navigator, designed to help manage post-milking areas such as feeding, reproduction and udder health.

The system uses advanced analysis to identify cows that need attention, indicates a recommended course of action as prescribed by previously loaded parameters, or distributes early and specific alerts to prescribe quick actions, and thereby improve reproductive and animal health, welfare and food safety issues.

How does it work? During the milking phase a sample is taken from each quarter of the cow, and around 15ml is sent to the Farm Lab that is the key to the Navigator system, situated as far as 30m from the milking shed. The lab takes around 60 seconds to analyse this sample.

To determine what’s happening on the feed side of the equation the unit measures beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) which can give an indication of sub-clinical ketosis, ketosis and a range of other metabolic diseases. It also detects the presence of urea in the milk sample, which can give an indicator of protein imbalances, and thereby allow analysis and adjustment of ration for best performance. Trials are showing that up to 50% more cases of ketosis are being detected, so the system has the potential to prevent production losses of up to 600kg/cow/lactation.

As part of the management process, any alerts will be sent to a screen to enable ongoing monitoring, or individual animals can be drafted out for close inspection.

Key to any successful season is calving cows and getting them back into calf and maximising production. The Farm Lab measures the levels of the hormone progesterone to see the position of the cow in its reproductive cycle, issues a guide to the best time for insemination, and even monitors for six days after AB to detect any possibility of reabsorption of the foetus. It is also an extremely useful tool for the detection of silent heat, pregnancy itself and the indicators of luteal and follicular cysts.

The third area covered, and a key to maximum production, is the detection of mastitis, and in this case the unit measures the levels of lactose dehydrogenase (LDH) which show increased levels if there is any bacterial invasion, and corresponding increases in cell counts. Interestingly the process can give up to three days early notice of a problem, prior to their being any physical evidence from the cow. Further, the speed of the analysis during the milking cycle can detect possible mastitis through an increase in conductivity brought about by an increase in chlorine, and can divert suspect milk away to a separate holding and alleviate costly downgrades, at the same time drafting the affected cow away for closer inspection

So the days of using a ‘stripping cup’ prior to milking for seeing mastitis clots, and sniffing a cow’s breath to detect ketosis, are long behind us, and the modern dairy farmer is more likely to be sat at a terminal in a farm office, making informed management decisions, while the cows milk themselves.