| Livestock
CowAlert by IceRobotics Your trusted partner in tackles early lameness slurry and agricultural waste water management detection It is estimated that on average farmers only recognise 25% of lame cows by sight, while figures show that the average cost of a lameness case is £320 per cow (Willshire & Bell, 2009).
Founded in 1985 by Peter Russell, Midland Slurry Systems Ltd specialises in the supply and maintenance of agricultural waste water treatment and animal slurry management across the UK. Since Peter’s retirement, the company remains a family concern with Giles and Ben Russell taking on the management of the business as we continue to grow. e pride ourselves on a full service and bespoke offering to our customers – from initial advice outlining suitable options through to installation, commissioning and after sales service care. Our time spent in the industry has shown that no two jobs are the same, each site poses its own individual challenges. We bring to bear experience gathered from a wide range of installations and servicing, from farms with 80 cows to larger scale dairies with 2,000 cows and every herd size in
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eveloped by IceRobotics, the Edinburgh-based agri-technology company, CowAlert is the only available on-farm system which offers very early diagnosis of lameness, enabling early intervention which is the key to lameness control. Using a rear legmounted sensor – an ‘IceQube’ – the unique system continuously monitors the lameness status of each cow and delivers data which is both highly accurate and timely, further informing on-farm decisionmaking and productivity by reducing the number, severity and duration of lameness cases. Douglas Armstrong, CEO of IceRobotics commented, “After years of high levels of lameness, we believe it’s time to challenge and tackle the issue of lameness in the dairy herd. We understand the impact, scale and cost of lameness and are totally committed to helping dairy farmers counteract this through early intervention and prevention. There’s a common misconception that a 25% lameness figure is acceptable, but in reality, 5% lameness is totally achievable by the help of our technology.” Trine Campbell of Cuil Farm, Castle Douglas, has been using the CowAlert lameness module since early 2018. The system has helped them to free up valuable time and get on top of lameness, reducing incidence from around 10-12% to
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just 5% over the last two years: “Previously, mobility scoring was something we did in a hurry, just before a visit from the foot trimmers. It was both difficult and time consuming as we did it during milking, when cows were able to hide their lameness as they rushed to get past. When the new CowAlert lameness module came out beginning of 2018, we started using the amber and red alerts to select cows for the trimmers in addition to routine trims, based on a schedule of 2 trims per cow per year. For the last couple of years, we have succeeded in further reducing our mobility score to an average of around 5% lameness (score 2&3). We no longer use manual mobility scores and only rely on the automated mobility scoring system on CowAlert. We feel this is a more accurate and consistent measure of cow foot comfort as it’s measured 24/7, not just in a quick run-by! “The lameness module also lets you move alerted cows onto a trim list, and from here you can enter a diagnosis once the cause is found for easy tracking of each animal. In this last year the percentage of cows trimmed with diagnosis of diseased claws has reduced from 16% in October 2018 to 9% in August 2019, and we are seeing less and less severe foot lesions,” Trine concluded. Visit CowAlert at DairyTech on stand I26 within hall 1 to find out more on their early lameness detection module.
between. We also count anaerobic digestion (AD) plants and pig farmers amongst our customer base. Offering a full range of products from slurry scrapers, pumps, mixers, separators, sand bedding reclamation systems, umbilical systems, to dirty water irrigation, pipe and fittings, we are confident we have something to suit most farmers. We work with industry leading suppliers including McLanahan, Landia (UK), Storth Machinery and Briggs Irrigation to deliver the most cost-effective solution for your needs.
December 2019 | Farming Monthly | 31