Genus charging by the hour for inseminating cows

Are anyone else's Genus tecs going grumpy of late or is it just mine ?
He's started doing this ! The bin is 6 paces to the right of where he drops the glove, he knows where the bin is ! he's ben told where the bin is ! I don't want to fall out but FFS 🤬🤬🤬🤬
IMG_20240129_102928126.jpg
 

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
is it acceptable to expect the AI Technician to fetch a single cow into the AI stall themselves, occasionally? I'd say 85% or more of the time we drop tools and fetch all cows for the technician when they arrive. We have to book a call before 10am and then they basically have all day, pretty much to turn up. The time they arrive can vary from 9am - 3pm. We are a robotically milked housed herd. Theres 69 cows and only two cubicle passages (3 rows of beds and a feed passage basically).

we are paying all invoices on net 30 day terms by DD and our service charge works out at £24 a service, regardless if theres 1,2,3 or a sync etc. its just flat rate per service and we do all heat detection ourselves.
I had a bit of a falling out with a technician yesterday, not to go into too much detail. Basically he had arrived and was expecting me to appear and fetch the cow for him, as i would usually do. But yesterday my hands were tied with something else and after 15 mins and 3 missed calls i was basically TOLD that the sexed straw, which happened to be the last in the flask 🤦🏼‍♂️ had been wasted and that he couldnt find the cow, like i previously mentioned. Theres only 69 in the barn and two rows, it's hardly a complex of buildings and hundreds of cows in a group! I was VERY annoyed, and for the money i have spent and am continuing to spend with Genus and the times i have had the cows in the stall ready and waiting for them i definitely expected a better level of service.

anyway, im just interested to know what the norm is, was he out of order or was i out of order for loosing my sh!t with the rep later on! Should i always have cows ready and in the stall or would it be reasonable for them to fetch the cows themselves?

As an ex-tech for a different company I'll offer my tuppence worth for the sake of discussion and seeing it from another POV. Please don't think I'm pointing a finger at you and stirring the pot.

First and foremost (and I'm aware it's a dick head thing to say) - AI call means you pick the cows and have them in a pen for the AI tech. That's the deal.

As for the cost - the tech doesn't have any influence on that. They might get a bonus of £1/cow but that would probably be it.

The tech turning up, thawing the straw out and then going to check for the cow is totally crap - I think you're well within your rights to speak to the rep about that. What it will achieve I don't know but I can't believe for one moment that is how they were trained or told to operate. Find the cow, in the crush/stall and restrained, then thaw.

The time they turn up will naturally vary day to day depending on who calls in with how many. Sadly someone has to come last and it sounds you're last or near last. This might be down to geography and you're the end of the line. This might be down to be fully housed and on robots - with no milking times to worry about it does offer a tech the opportunity to be flexible with timings because soon everyone wants their cows served by 8am and back out to grazing.

Having to drop everything to go and find cows is disruptive to you - I can appreciate that. From a techs POV trying to find a cow is a minefield - eartags go missing, FBs get covered in mud, collars can be turned inside out. 3s can be missed for 8s. There can be problems.

Then it's a case of getting the cow into the holding area. What if she barges her way into the robot and gets milked? What if she won't go in and just runs rings around the tech? What if she slips over and breaks her leg - who deals with that?

How long does all this take? You don't know where that tech has come from to start that day nor what farms they potentially have after yours. Why should these other farms suffer from a late tech because your cow wasn't pulled out? You're upset already because of the varied times they're arriving - this might not be an isolated issue and you're already suffering from someone else not having cows ready.

There is the human element to this. As I mentioned about the tech - depending on where they live and where they get sent has a huge effect on their mood. It could be they've been up since 4 and might have an hour or 2 hour drive home after they've finished the last farm at 3pm. It can be bloody hard going from farm to farm, being kicked and crapped on by cows all day, in and out of waterproofs all day and probably not seeing many people. Maybe this tech just had a bad day - maybe you both had a bad day? I dont know.

Like I said - I'm not trying to stir the pot here. But theres 2 sides to every argument and usually the truth is somewhere in the middle.
 

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
Are anyone else's Genus tecs going grumpy of late or is it just mine ?
He's started doing this ! The bin is 6 paces to the right of where he drops the glove, he knows where the bin is ! he's ben told where the bin is ! I don't want to fall out but FFS 🤬🤬🤬🤬View attachment 1161477

That's not on. It might have slipped out by accident but as he has to go through that gate he would surely see it when he turns around and pick it up then.
 

Treg

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cornwall
Three times on three different occasions I don't think so, as said above he has a major sulk on for some reason.
Our Ai man didn't talk to me for 12 months,, one morning he said morning, had a chat, his wife had died, he thanked me for wishing him good morning, every morning even when he didn't talk back.
Please check your Ai man is OK.
 

DickDastardly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Wales
As an ex-tech for a different company I'll offer my tuppence worth for the sake of discussion and seeing it from another POV. Please don't think I'm pointing a finger at you and stirring the pot.

First and foremost (and I'm aware it's a dick head thing to say) - AI call means you pick the cows and have them in a pen for the AI tech. That's the deal.

As for the cost - the tech doesn't have any influence on that. They might get a bonus of £1/cow but that would probably be it.

The tech turning up, thawing the straw out and then going to check for the cow is totally crap - I think you're well within your rights to speak to the rep about that. What it will achieve I don't know but I can't believe for one moment that is how they were trained or told to operate. Find the cow, in the crush/stall and restrained, then thaw.

The time they turn up will naturally vary day to day depending on who calls in with how many. Sadly someone has to come last and it sounds you're last or near last. This might be down to geography and you're the end of the line. This might be down to be fully housed and on robots - with no milking times to worry about it does offer a tech the opportunity to be flexible with timings because soon everyone wants their cows served by 8am and back out to grazing.

Having to drop everything to go and find cows is disruptive to you - I can appreciate that. From a techs POV trying to find a cow is a minefield - eartags go missing, FBs get covered in mud, collars can be turned inside out. 3s can be missed for 8s. There can be problems.

Then it's a case of getting the cow into the holding area. What if she barges her way into the robot and gets milked? What if she won't go in and just runs rings around the tech? What if she slips over and breaks her leg - who deals with that?

How long does all this take? You don't know where that tech has come from to start that day nor what farms they potentially have after yours. Why should these other farms suffer from a late tech because your cow wasn't pulled out? You're upset already because of the varied times they're arriving - this might not be an isolated issue and you're already suffering from someone else not having cows ready.

There is the human element to this. As I mentioned about the tech - depending on where they live and where they get sent has a huge effect on their mood. It could be they've been up since 4 and might have an hour or 2 hour drive home after they've finished the last farm at 3pm. It can be bloody hard going from farm to farm, being kicked and crapped on by cows all day, in and out of waterproofs all day and probably not seeing many people. Maybe this tech just had a bad day - maybe you both had a bad day? I dont know.

Like I said - I'm not trying to stir the pot here. But theres 2 sides to every argument and usually the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Thanks for your opinion. But i dont agree with any of it.

A) im also up at 4am. And i'm
Nowhere near done by 3pm. So if they think that's hard. Come do my job. Like me, they do have a choice to do it or not.
B) very rare that you work those hrs every day as a tech. They often brag about being home before lunch.
C) if im paying, ill dictate what happens and when it happens. Especially if they want to raise the prices and get me to pay the whole yearly fee in equal monthly instalments to help their cashflow.
D) the rep has specifically told me not to leave any cows in the collecting pen as he cant guarantee when the technician will come.

weight all of the above up. What am i actually paying £££,000 a year for? Might as well just buy my own flask and wing it. Im doing 95% of the work and paying for the privilege

like i said. This was probably the 2nd time in 2.5yrs that i have expected them to serve a cow without me being there. This is what sucks about the industry. Too many snow flakes and Everyone wants to piggy back on the farmer and feel all hard done by. Just grow a pair and get on with it 😂
 
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