Layered Plan Needed To Fight BVD
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) is sometimes viewed as a dairy industry issue, but the reality is that the disease can have serious consequences for beef breeding herds as well.
MSD Animal Health business unit lead - technology, Austin Heffernan, says the sensors capture data from each cow at every milking and automatically transfer it to SenseHub software, where it is displayed in user-friendly dashboards and reports.
With individual animal insights, farmers can track trends over time and use the information to support decisions on breeding, feeding, culling and drying off.
Both sensors can be retrofitted to herringbone or rotary sheds milking herds fitted with SenseHub Dairy collars.
SenseHub Dairy MilkPlus Sensors collect yield plus fat, protein and lactose percentages, and also calculate conductivity and check for the presence of blood to help monitor for early signs of udder health issues.
SenseHub Dairy Somatic Cell Count Sensors automatically perform a Rapid Mastitis Test (RMT) within two minutes of cupping for each cow, then send results directly to the SenseHub Dairy platform.
Optical warning lights can be installed at the milking point which turn green, orange or red, depending on the result while each cow is still in the bail, indicating that there may be a potential issue and allowing milking staff to act quickly if necessary.
“The addition of these sensors gives farmers more timely data to make informed decisions around breeding, feeding, culling and drying off their cows,” Heffernan says.
“The data builds a clearer picture of cow performance for a range of indicators, so farmers can act on patterns over time rather than just the snapshot they get from a herd test on one day in a season.”
Early adopters report improved feed management and more confidence in mating and culling decisions.
With more frequent insights, farmers can see how feed changes affect production and intervene quickly when performance shifts.
At mating, the extra data can help identify top performers for high value straws or sexed semen, while supporting decisions to mate lower performers to beef sires.
Users see a dashboard that highlights at-risk cows, and view and download customisable reports which provide deeper insights into the performance of every cow in the herd for a range of milk yield and quality criteria.
“Our tech team is continuing to refine how insights are displayed, with further enhancements planned over the coming year,” Heffernan says
Standard outputs include daily and weekly yield reports and a combined milk solids report that builds over the season.
The Herd Shift Summary report compares each milking result by group against the weekly average, helping managers spot meaningful changes in production by cow, group and shift.
For more information and pricing, visit www.sensehub.co.nz
