By Catalina Mejia-Bonilla, DVM, The Dairy Authority
Technology has become a valuable tool on dairy farms. From robotic milkers to automated feeding systems, and smart controllers that manage cow environment to systems that monitor cows both inside and out, technology can be applied almost anywhere on the dairy. How and if it is used is up to each individual farm.
One area in which we recommend the use of technology is fresh-cow monitoring. Fresh cows are at a critical point in their production cycle. During that first month of lactation, cows undergo significant metabolic changes and experience immune suppression at the same time they are ramping up milk production. This makes them highly vulnerable to health issues that can negatively impact their lactation success and even their herd longevity.
That’s why constant monitoring of fresh cows is so important. Daily physical exams used to be the primary way to evaluate fresh cows’ health. Those programs were thorough and effective, but they required a great deal of labor and were very disruptive to cows’ routines.
But now, technology such as wearable cow collars provide real-time data on cow activity, rumination time, temperature and more. Through continuous monitoring, producers, farm personnel and veterinarians can detect early signs of illness before clinical symptoms become severe. This helps reduce treatment cost and improve recovery outcomes, and all of the information can be managed remotely.
The most valuable metrics these systems provide for fresh-cow monitoring include:
- Rumination time. This is a key indicator of gut and overall health. Remember a cow is essentially a rumen on legs—if something is wrong with the rumen, the health of the cow is at risk unless early intervention is made.
- Activity levels. The change in a cow’s activity level is useful for identifying deviations from normal behavior. Too little activity may indicate illness, while restlessness might suggest the cow has pain or discomfort.
- Temperature. Some systems track body temperature which helps detect fever or infection early.
While these tools provide real-time data and alerts, they do not replace the value of trained eyes on the cow. Alerts should never be the sole method of assessing and diagnosing cows.
Instead, alerts such as a drop in rumination time or a spike in activity should be used to notify trained personnel (producers, farm staff and veterinarians) who understand how to interpret and act on the data. Then visual observations, physical exams, and assessment of clinical signs can be used to diagnose and treat cows. This blended approach helps ensure accurate diagnoses, timely treatment, and better cow outcomes.
