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PRECISION SHARING KNOWLEDGE,
BOOSTING PERFORMANCE
aving access to the latest and best technology is essential if businesses are to remain competitive and efficient. When it comes to fertility management, this means using the best available product to maximise reproductive performance. As explained below by Precision services manager Mike Halliwell, Precision Reproductive Solutions provides a complete fertility overview, from initial breeding to overall herd health. It uses several key elements to create a unique fertility management solution and combines this with a full package of support from AI technicians.
H
At the heart of the Precision service is teamwork. The system combines the up-to-the- minute technology of Cogent’s
PD+ software with the next generation heat detection system and herd health monitoring tool, PinPoint+; a feature which provides real time monitoring of rumination, resting and feeding times as well as milk records.
Precision works by measuring more than 3m data points every 24hrs and collates data from across the whole farm. It accurately analyses all of the information received from cows and features it in a way that is easy to interpret. This allows the farm team, AI technicians and external vets to quickly share knowledge about heat or suspected heat, as well as low activity animals which may be exhibiting the first signs of disease.
In many farm operations that have been using Precision
Reproductive Solutions PRECISION
over a period of six months, heat detection rate has been consistently recorded at more than 65%. This has allowed more eligible animals to be served and has produced an increase in fertility and pregnancy rates. When combined with an effective vet program to help cows that are sub-oestrus/anoestrus, submission rates can exceed 70%.
The technology is also fully integrated with the Wordwide Mating Service (WMS), an impartial mating programme which correctively mates each cow individually, by identifying their strengths and weaknesses across all 17 linear traits. This ensures the herd is genetically healthy, delivers consistently and has genuine longevity.
isitors to Bristol University’s Wyndhurst Farm would be immediately struck by the quality of the cows and the state-of-the-art infrastructure that provides a world-class, practical teaching environment for some 700 vet students.
BRISTOL UNIVERSITY’S WYNDHURST FARM V
The 275-acre farm, managed by David Hichens of Velcourt, provides the dairy herd with every advantage. Cattle are housed in deep sand bedded cubicles and fed a mixed ration using grass, maize and whole- crop wheat silages grown on the farm. In short, all efforts are made to ensure the high welfare standards of a modern milk production business.
The need to detect reliable heats is particularly important in this high production herd so when their heat detection system came to the end of its life, another solution needed to be found. After researching four different systems, Wyndhurst Farm opted for Precision in August of last year, as it addressed both heat detection and record-keeping with the added bonus of support from Cogent’s AI Technicians. “We immediately saw a rise in conception rates as we found we were more accurately serving the cows that were in heat. When using a heat detection aid of any kind, the aim is to increase submission
rate and often those extra animal serves may result in a reduced conception rate,” explains David.
“The expectation was to serve all the cows we saw in strong oestrus and hope they all got in calf. We had the opposite effect because we were so focussed
Precision data can be easily accessed on a smart phone by the farm team, vets and AI technicians.
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