Making herd health data accessible from the start

A Canterbury trial is showing that the data generated from SenseHub Dairy’s youngstock tags can change how farmers approach feeding and weaning decisions.

The Synlait trial compared ad-lib and conventional calf feeding systems using SenseHub Dairy youngstock tags to monitor behaviour, health and growth outcomes. 

Nicky Halley, Synlait Farms Operations Manager, says “the results were clear, with ad-lib calves reaching 85kg 20 days sooner and 100kg eight days sooner than the control mob.”

“It just shows the importance of early nutrition and setting calves up for the long term,” Halley says.

“We were just using our gut feel, whereas now we’ve got the data right there.”

“The tags provide a health index for each calf, allowing staff to triage animals so they can prioritise care over the calving period which is a particularly busy time on the farming calendar.”

“Each morning, staff activate a light (which can be scheduled) on calves with lower health indexes, walk through the shed to identify them, and collar those needing attention.”

“When a rotavirus outbreak hit the calf shed despite vaccination, the tags helped prioritise which calves needed attention first.”

He says “the ad-lib mob was less affected than the restricted feeding group.”

South Island Sales Lead for SenseHub, Laura Christensen, says “the youngstock ear tag is the latest addition to the SenseHub Dairy platform that now covers animal behaviour monitoring from birth through to the milking herd.”

“Adding the ear tag into the mix with SenseHub youngstock enables us to have that health alerting from 27 hours once tagged, which means that we can give those calves the best start all the way through,” she says.

“Youngstock tags like our collars and tags for cows are available on subscription on a per-head, per-month basis,” Laura says, “this has the advantage that if you are paying for 400 devices, we keep you supplied with 400 devices”.

The calves from the trial that were tagged with the youngstock tags have now left the home property and are out for grazing on a property in Windwhistle. To enable ongoing monitoring of the calves the youngstock tags run via a solar-powered receiver station using a SIM card that communicates data back to the main hub at the dairy shed in real time.

Heat detection on R2s before they enter the dairy shed has come up in conversations with farmers, she says. The system does not require an existing SenseHub dairy collar setup, as youngstock tags can be deployed as a standalone solution.

To watch or listen to Nicky’s story which featured as an episode of CountryWide Connect’s Agritech segment in partnership with SenseHub Dairy click here