There are plenty of case studies in the farming press about the benefits of heat detection systems in dairy herd management. The benefits now seem to be proven beyond all doubt. Not just the dairy herd, progressive beef suckler herds wishing to use AI are also benefiting from automated heat detection.
- trend to larger herd sizes, so less time to spend on cow watching
- the majority of cows will go active during the night when there won’t be anyone around to observe
Most heat detection systems will come with a Windows PC program, which shows cow activity in a graphical format. Some of these software packages can offer quite comprehensive data recording, for example allowing the user to record service records as well as possible heats.
That is useful up to a point, but there is real benefit to integrating heat detection recording with full herd management records. Many manufacturers of cow heat detection systems recognize this and offer ways to export data, which can then be loaded into a dairy of beef management program. By having all the herd’s breeding records in one place, the herd manager can see the big picture of the herd’s fertility performance – for example, submission rates, conception rates and pregnancy rates. This information is invaluable to the herd manager and his veterinary surgeon.
The methods of transferring data out of dairy cow heat detection systems can involve purpose-made software interfaces, where data transfer is seamless “data link”. However, one of the most common methods of transferring data to dairy herd management software is via the CSV file format that we mention in a previous blog post.
Another benefit of the CSV format is that data such as cow identity records and current calving dates can be exported from the farm’s herd management software and used to populate the list of cows when first setting up a new heat detection system. Orchid are currently putting product development effort into expanding the number of heat detection systems that its software can link to; for example, DairyMaster Moo Monitors, NMR Silent Herdsman and Fabdec Heatime.
If you are putting in a new heat detection system for your dairy herd or a commercial beef suckler herd that uses AI, Orchid can offer a comprehensive herd recording system that will link to your parlour or heat detection system.
Software development never stands still, so give Orchid a call on 01536 443300 to see where we’re at with these systems..