November 2021 January 2021
The POINT “When you're in this business you're like an NFL coach. You surround yourself with good people and it makes life much easier. CentralStar is really amazing. The whole group is phenomenal to work with. We are blessed to have great employees. They care about what we do.” Jim, Chuck and Mark Fahey Prairieland Dairy, Belleville, Wis.
Photo: Jim, Chuck and Mark Fahey, Prairieland Dairy, Belleville, Wis.
Prairieland Dairy In play since February 2020 Jim, Chuck and Mark Fahey shared, "CowManager® basically tells us everything we need to know about a cow," during their virtual farm tour at World Dairy Expo. See how CowManager's real-time alerts are impacting several areas at the dairy.
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owManager’s orange ear tag transmits data every 15-minutes, providing realtime information to manage from. Individual animal alerts are pushed to your phone, which eliminates spending hours a day looking for sick cows and cows in heat. Instead, time and attention can be prioritized to animals that need it most. “It gives you alerts and tells you how critical they are,” said Chuck of the health alerts he receives to his phone. “A yellow alert means there’s something suspicious going on, and a red alert means we need to go look at the cow now. It has really helped us prioritize our time.” Herd health improves Since installing CowManager, the dairy has seen a steady decline in health events. Metritis is down 53%, milk fever 75%, ketosis 22%, retained placentas 70% and abortions
39%. The reduction in health events leads to less labor and money spent on treatment, while preserving milk production. Additionally, the herd reports fewer cow deaths and cows sold, which has a positive effect on profits through inventory. “The CowManager system helps us to identify that sick cow before she physically looks ill. Now we can take that cow with minimal issues, deal with minimal issues and have her back in the milk line sooner, or she never leaves the milk line,” shared herd Veterinarian, Dr. Jessica Powell, PMJ Farm Service. Previously, the Fahey’s monitored parlor milk weights to identify cows that might not be feeling well. “By the time we saw a drop in production, chances are the cow was really down and out, and it was probably too late,” shared Chuck. “With CowManager we pick
up cows that are sick within five or six hours. It’s a wonderful system.” This summer the dairy trialed CowManager’s new transition feature, which uses machine learning during the dry period to predict which animals are most susceptible to having problems post-freshening. As one of the first herds in the U.S. to utilize this feature, Phil Dieter, CentralStar Chief Executive Officer shared, “It means you can significantly reduce the number of animals that will have health issues, weeks prior to the event occurring. Once an animal is identified you give a direct-fed microbial or appetite stimulant like Tri-Start Bolus or BioFresh® Bolus and use minimally invasive practices to prevent the future sickness. This approach has had an impact on this herd’s Continued on page 2.