With increasing herd sizes and more cows per staff member, a need for tools to manage the work with reproduction may arise. The most used activity monitoring systems have neck tags with movement sensors. Such systems measure the activity level continuously and this will be compared with the average activity level for the individual animal. If the animal differs positively or negatively compared to the average level, the animal may be in heat or be sick.
Finding the problem
If the service rate is low when using technology for heat detection, it is recommended to check the technique, applications and limit values of the system. Evaluate the system alarms in combination with cows’ heat behaviour and AI technician experience when servicing.
On the contrary, if the pregnancy rate is low, focus should be put on the time of service compared with the heats detected. Low pregnancy rate may also be due to faulty settings of the system resulting in alarms for animals that are not in heat.
Focus areas
- Check the system compared to the user guideline from the system provider and the data available
- Evaluate routines for moving transponders between animals
- Evaluate number of transponders compared with number of animals
Source: SEGES, Denmark
