LIC CellSense/Saber SCC - Any good?

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
Evening

Anyone familiar with this system?

I've just come across some second hand LIC CellSense units (and the 24v power supply) at a very, very sharp price. No idea if they work or not, but I'm prepared to take a punt.

What kind of reagent do they run on? Is the cheap CMT (or what we call RMT/Rapid Mastitis Test) reagent OK or do they run on something special?
Do they need a pump for the reagent or is gravity feed OK?
Is there a seperate "control unit" that is needed, or will the system work with the main unit and the displays shown below?
How long do they last? They seem to be reasonably complicated so I can't imagine they last forever?

They're identical to this:
Untitled.jpg
Untitled1.jpg


Regards
 

sidjon

Member
Location
EXMOOR
We had It on demo, was looking to fit 12 in a 25/50, was very expensive and changed our policy on mastitis culling, which made a bigger difference to us , was/is looking at fitting ACR's which can have scc built into them but got no idea how they work.
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
Yes, the system in its current form (Protrack SCC in NZ) is prohibitively expensive to buy new and simply not worth it (in my opinion). The fact that the local salesman is incapable of answering the phone, listening to his voicemail messages and calling back is another turn off. Other systems on the market are equally eye wateringly expensive.

What ACRs are you looking at? Never heard of them with built in scc detection, but it's a wonder why in this day and age they don't cram more technology in.
 

sidjon

Member
Location
EXMOOR
From what I’ve herd they’ll pick up mastitis 2/3 days before you’ll see it in the milk
We will be having it fitted middle of the year as well
Ummm, not so sure for cell sense , we had It for 6 weeks and our biggest problem for mastitis is CNS (all subclinical) ,so scc jumps all over the place and didn't turn into proper mastitis, guess depends what your problem is 🤔
 

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire
You could get a green light in a morning indicating cell count below 200 and same cow would have a red light in afternoon which would indicate cell count above a million and back to green next morning
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I think they run on their own "special" reagent (CellGel) best, we did pour a couple of litres of regular reagent in once when we ran out.

We just had a shurflo pump to feed it from the drum out to the tank above the milkline and IIRC it was gravity supply to the units - don't take that as Gospel
 

sidjon

Member
Location
EXMOOR
I think they run on their own "special" reagent (CellGel) best, we did pour a couple of litres of regular reagent in once when we ran out.

We just had a shurflo pump to feed it from the drum out to the tank above the milkline and IIRC it was gravity supply to the units - don't take that as Gospel
Lely make/supply it over here
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
I think they run on their own "special" reagent (CellGel) best, we did pour a couple of litres of regular reagent in once when we ran out.

We just had a shurflo pump to feed it from the drum out to the tank above the milkline and IIRC it was gravity supply to the units - don't take that as Gospel

How did you find them overall? Useful or a gimmicky waste of time and money?

You could get a green light in a morning indicating cell count below 200 and same cow would have a red light in afternoon which would indicate cell count above a million and back to green next morning
I guess it's possible that the cow in question had an underlying subclinical problem. How was your BMSCC at the time?
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
How did you find them overall? Useful or a gimmicky waste of time and money?


I guess it's possible that the cow in question had an underlying subclinical problem. How was your BMSCC at the time?
Invaluable is the word I'd use.

I used them on an Organic dairy about 12 years ago, for a bit of context I often milked with a relief milker and we had 5 or 6 cellsense thingys in a 30 aside, we milked about 18 rows.

It just meant picking up on cows before they became a problem, I mean even with experience you miss the signs,, without experience you miss a lot of signs, don't milk them out properly etc

We only had one cow with mastitis that needed antibiotic / removal from herd which is pretty damn good for 540-odd cows, and the second lowest BMSCC for Southland.

Way different procedure than your normal "just treat it with antibiotics and draft her out" type of operation, I mean this whole farm system completely blew my previous limitations and preconceptions to bits.
The sensors played a really big part in it because at least you knew a cow would be getting checked every 4th or 5th milking, which is way better IMO than waiting until there are clots on the sock and subclinical mastitis through the herd and then "go firefighting"
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
Yes, my thinking is if I can get these 5 units and stick them into my 22 aside, over 280 cows it should provide some valuable data (especially since I don't heard test)

What exactly did you do when the system notified you of a problem cow?
 

box

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
NZ
We are having milktec acrs in our new parlour, they apparently have developed a scc detector that works off of the laser/infra red sensors that also do milk yield and acr control

Interesting. Got a link? I've never heard of Milktec.

I've done a bit of research and I don't think these second hand CellSense units are going to work for me. By the time install them and get them working, replace the broken/missing bits, get Protrack out to service them (they won't sell the parts so I can do it myself) and then end up paying an annual "license fee".

Apparently the displays (as shown above) are now getting to the age where they've started failing, they're no longer repairable so if they're faulty they've got to be replaced with an "Optical Warning Light/OWL", which are fairly pricey on their own.

By the way, the CellSense units run on Ecolab SCC Gel in case anyone is interested.

Better off to buy new ones.

Probably better off to buy nothing.
 
Last edited:

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yes, my thinking is if I can get these 5 units and stick them into my 22 aside, over 280 cows it should provide some valuable data (especially since I don't heard test)

What exactly did you do when the system notified you of a problem cow?
Usually just pay a bit more attention to milking-out, if medium SCC often a bit of Bowen therapy to get those big veins pumping, a bit of homeopathy, peppermint oil... really just milk them into a testbucket and assist her with recovering herself .
 

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