Find cows quickly and easily

Finding an individual cow or even a few cows in larger groups that need to be checked, inseminated, treated or fetched isn’t always as straightforward as it would seem.

But cow location technology can help.

This tool can automatically locate the cows you need, accurately pinpointing their real-time position on your barn map with one click.

Focus employee time and attention

Investing in cow location helps dairies reduce frustration, stress and lost time spent seeking specific animals, making your team infinitely more efficient.

The technology fits most modern dairy facilities as long as you include infrastructure to mount a beacon, such as a barn or a fully supported sunshade.

Transition pens, breeding pens and similar areas where cows require more attention are good places to initially install location system components. Pens for mid- to late-lactation cows can be added later if not included in the introductory installation.

Spend time on needed tasks

The ability to find specific animals quickly and accurately means your team can more effectively manage time. Instead of searching pens for an animal, employees can spend efforts on more mindful tasks like breeding and animal care. This holds true in conventional and robotic dairy facilities.

Cow locating technology frees up labor to do different jobs on the farm, jobs that sometimes are a higher priority than hunting down the few animals you're trying to find. As a result, dairies have been able to pivot and reallocate where labor spends time.

Reduce interruptions to cow routines

Your team isn’t the only part of your farm affected by more targeted herd interactions. Cows benefit too.

Less disruption to daily activities is an important outcome of more efficient cow locating. The fewer interactions you have with cows throughout their day, the better. If you can easily and remotely find a cow, you don't have to disrupt an entire pen looking for one out of 200 herd mates. It's critical to minimize human-cow interactions and let cows be cows.

While it’s difficult to assign a specific price tag to reduced herd interactions, anecdotally, dairies report increased milk production of 1-2 pounds per cow per day thanks to less time away from feed and water for the whole group, not just those that require attention.

Additionally, for larger dairies, especially those that have pens with 500 or 600 cows, cow locating can also help with identifying animals in the wrong pen.

When it’s time to seek animals, employees are not circling through a pen that a specific cow may not even be in. Location becomes a great tool for dairies to manage where their animals are.

One of the biggest benefits of cow location technology is that you don't need to install it all at once. You can start with a tag that accepts location and the hardware can be added later. You can begin with one location or pen and add it to your system over time.

Visit nedap-livestockmanagment.com for more information about how cow locating can work for your farm.