How many collars/peds for heat detection?

[Beef farmer]

Why anybody would even entertain a new collar system now is beyond me, so expensive when the technology has clearly been made compact enough to fit in a tag. If you’re going block calving you’ll need 190+ tags they’re under £30 a piece so less than £6k. 190 collars is bound to be tapping on for £20k now?

Allflex will let you have either. They rage the collar better tho.
Same cost to rent, tag is cheaper to buy but same cost to rent...

 

[Beef farmer]

Any views on genus breeder tag system?

 

[Headless chicken]

Any views on genus breeder tag system?

Not the genus system but I hated putting on and cutting off pedometers. Seemed to me that it was just a stupid place to have to put your head. With the potential turn over of stock you generate from buying out of blockers and Tb I’d guess it’s a hassle you could do with out.
That said we nedap collared heifers before and they were twits to get off. Not too bad going on.

 

[Beef farmer]

Not the genus system but I hated putting on and cutting off pedometers. Seemed to me that it was just a stupid place to have to put your head. With the potential turn over of stock you generate from buying out of blockers and Tb I’d guess it’s a hassle you could do with out.
That said we nedap collared heifers before and they were twits to get off. Not too bad going on.

They initially put them on, the replacements I can live with.
More interested in how well it works.

 

[Jdunn55]

Any views on genus breeder tag system?

I've used it in the past, wasn't a fan. Too many false positives if the cows were walking too far - and not just in the spring. Most days you had to turn the sorting gate off or you would have every single cow in the sorting pen. Used to have to go down every single milk meter and turn off the flashing lights for every single cow because they were all bulling. Might be alright for you in the autumn though ( the guy I worked for originally qas an autumn calver who only served when the cows were inside but he moved to ayr and then they weren't so good imo)

 

[Beef farmer]

I've used it in the past, wasn't a fan. Too many false positives if the cows were walking too far - and not just in the spring. Most days you had to turn the sorting gate off or you would have every single cow in the sorting pen. Used to have to go down every single milk meter and turn off the flashing lights for every single cow because they were all bulling. Might be alright for you in the autumn though ( the guy I worked for originally qas an autumn calver who only served when the cows were inside but he moved to ayr and then they weren't so good imo)

Not keen on the gate being unreliable.

 

[Jdunn55]

Not keen on the gate being unreliable.

I'm not sure what gate it was but it wasn't the gate that was the problem, it was the heat detection system saying the cow was bulling when they weren't but it would say 95% of the cows were bulling (you would be lucky if 2 out of 14 in a row weren't flashing up as active) and therefore telling the gate to sort them unnecessarily. Whatever gate it was, wasn't that fantastic though - we used to just sort them manually in the end

 

[Beef farmer]

I'm not sure what gate it was but it wasn't the gate that was the problem, it was the heat detection system saying the cow was bulling when they weren't but it would say 95% of the cows were bulling (you would be lucky if 2 out of 14 in a row weren't flashing up as active) and therefore telling the gate to sort them unnecessarily. Whatever gate it was, wasn't that fantastic though - we used to just sort them manually in the end

I've spoke to a grazing man with 3 units and breeder tag on all 3 whos simply said it was fantastic.
You've chucked a right spanner in the works now

How old was the system you where using?
Genus themselves admit that to start with they wouldn't cope with grazing cows easily, but have now got it setup to allow it

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

I've spoke to a grazing man with 3 units and breeder tag on all 3 whos simply said it was fantastic.
You've chucked a right spanner in the works now

How old was the system you where using?
Genus themselves admit that to start with they wouldn't cope with grazing cows easily, but have now got it setup to allow it

I’m surprised your looking into such technology. What do you do now? Tail paint?

 

[Beef farmer]

I’m surprised your looking into such technology. What do you do now? Tail paint?

Walk and chalk

 

[frederick]

I've spoke to a grazing man with 3 units and breeder tag on all 3 whos simply said it was fantastic.
You've chucked a right spanner in the works now

How old was the system you where using?
Genus themselves admit that to start with they wouldn't cope with grazing cows easily, but have now got it setup to allow it

Don't think you can do better than a recommendation when narrowing it down.
Breeder won't give rumination but as long as the price compensates.

 

[Beef farmer]

Don't think you can do better than a recommendation when narrowing it down.
Breeder won't give rumination but as long as the price compensates.

I don't want to spend anything, but want to up my results.
Breeder is cheapest, especially if you let genus sell you semen.
I know loads of people using allflex and love it, but it comes at a cost. Also a lot of information I won't use.

 

[Jdunn55]

I've spoke to a grazing man with 3 units and breeder tag on all 3 whos simply said it was fantastic.
You've chucked a right spanner in the works now

How old was the system you where using?
Genus themselves admit that to start with they wouldn't cope with grazing cows easily, but have now got it setup to allow it

Sorry I'm good at that
Admittedly this would be fairly old now, probably knocking on for 10 years now I would think so if they've updated it since then it might be better. But the one I used I didn't think was that brilliant - put it this way if I saw anything standing heat or with dirty teats and sweating etc I got told to tell him and he would ai her

 

[frederick]

I don't want to spend anything, but want to up my results.
Breeder is cheapest, especially if you let genus sell you semen.
I know loads of people using allflex and love it, but it comes at a cost. Also a lot of information I won't use.

It's surprising how you use the info. Didn't think I'd really value health. It's not always showing that the cow is I'll the more useful is how is she recovering.
The nutrition isn't always easy to act on but it's quite interesting how weather diet changes etc affect the cows. Might not be able to sort next day but when you see how it correlates with milk it make you question longer term.

 

[Jdunn55]

Sorry I'm good at that
Admittedly this would be fairly old now, probably knocking on for 10 years now I would think so if they've updated it since then it might be better. But the one I used I didn't think was that brilliant - put it this way if I saw anything standing heat or with dirty teats and sweating etc I got told to tell him and he would ai her

Just thinking about this now, he put it in 6 years before I started working for him so that would be nearly 12 years ago now. In which case they've probably updated it so the people you've spoken to may well be pleased with it for good reason, how old are there systems?

 

[Beef farmer]

Just thinking about this now, he put it in 6 years before I started working for him so that would be nearly 12 years ago now. In which case they've probably updated it so the people you've spoken to may well be pleased with it for good reason, how old are there systems?

12 months

 

[Beef farmer]

It's surprising how you use the info. Didn't think I'd really value health. It's not always showing that the cow is I'll the more useful is how is she recovering.
The nutrition isn't always easy to act on but it's quite interesting how weather diet changes etc affect the cows. Might not be able to sort next day but when you see how it correlates with milk it make you question longer term.

For sure if it's there it will be interesting for a while. Then after breeding it will be ignored and wasted

 

[Kiss]

I’m surprised your looking into such technology. What do you do now? Tail paint?

When you sit down and work out how much running big teams of bulls is you surprise yourself!

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

When you sit down and work out how much running big teams of bulls is you surprise yourself!

Least they are doing 2 jobs I guess.

 

[Jdunn55]

12 months

Ask genus when it was last revamped, looking at how fast technology is moving all the time I doubt the system I used is the same as a brand new one.
Didn't realise how old it was though, time really does fly

The only other thing I'll add is that, 12 months is only one season of use and not 2-3?