Thursday, 24 February 2022 10:55

Heat detector removes stress out of autumn calving

Written by  Staff Reporters
Robert Buchanan farms 280 cows at Inglewood and faced a steep heat detection learning-curve some years ago. Robert Buchanan farms 280 cows at Inglewood and faced a steep heat detection learning-curve some years ago.

Heat detection is a challenge in any season, but autumn calvers know that cold and wet weather slows cows down, making heats harder to call with confidence.

According to the makers of Flashmate heat detector, anxiety over 'lost milk' from missed heats and poor-quality submissions can drive up stress levels on farm.

Robert Buchanan farms 280 cows at Inglewood and faced a steep heat detection learning-curve some years ago. Flashmate says Buchanan's search for a solution that could deliver a top result, without the stress, and at an affordable cost has been paying off for many years now.

"Our empty rates have dropped a lot. Last year we didn't have any empty two-year-olds and I had one empty three-year-old, so something's obviously working for us," Buchanan says.

He was determined to make a step up in performance from tail paint, without lifting farm costs long-term. This was important, given the possibility of future downturns which can extend or even eliminate the payback on higher-cost commitments.

Next came considerations of training and staff requirements, along with effort to interpret data needed to make your own final heat decisions. With long-term resilience in mind, he opted to keep it really simple.

"We've trialled collars and found Flashmates are a lot more attainable in terms of cost.

"It all corresponds, they fit in well with a system like outs. We try to keep costs down and I've used them six years in a row. There's no lying with it really, it's either on or off."

In winter weather, cows may be cycling, even if they're not making this obvious to the team. Silent heats drag down submissions, impacting six-week in-calf and empty rates.

"We're picking up silent heats with hardly any marking on tail paint. You're definitely picking up more cows earlier and picking up those cows that you'd normally miss," says Buchanan.

And late in the mating period, poor submissions carry additional risk.

"Flashmates are another visual thing you can say, 'that cow, she's definitely not on' [so] you don't put that cow up for AI, so you're not getting that embryonic loss."

More like this

Taking heat stress out of cows

With the advent of climate change, dairy farmers could expect to be dealing with more days where their cows are suffering from heat stress.

Diet key to mitigating heat stress

New research from the University of Queensland and the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) has revealed that changing the diets of pregnant sows could be key to improving animal welfare by easing heat stress.

Featured

Farmstrong marks 10 years of rural support

Nationwide rural wellbeing programme, Farmstrong recently celebrated its tenth birthday at Fieldays with an event attended by ambassador Sam Whitelock, Farmers Mutual Group (FMG), Farmstrong partners, and government Ministers.

National

Machinery & Products

Farming smarter with technology

The National Fieldays is an annual fixture in the farming calendar: it draws in thousands of farmers, contractors, and industry…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

110,000 visitors!

OPINION: It's official, Fieldays 2025 clocked 110,000 visitors over the four days.

Sticky situation

OPINION: The Federated Farmers rural advocacy hub at Fieldays has been touted as a great success.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter