At first, dairy producer James Vander Waal was hesitant. He knew of SenseHub® Dairy Youngstock monitoring and was intrigued by the possibilities, but wasn’t sure he’d see enough return on investment at his 1,600-cow operation in Iowa. Then his calf feeder quit, and he needed a new way to manage 350-plus calves.
“Calves are worth more today than they have been in a long time, so calf care is extremely important,” Vander Waal said. “And when my calf feeder quit, it just made sense to give it a try.”
Lumar Dairy Farms owner Louie Borba had a different problem: reoccurring illness that was costing him time, money and resources, with culling numbers he wasn’t comfortable with.
“I knew something needed to change,” Borba said. “And I’ve always been open to new technologies, new ways of thinking.”
Both producers turned to SenseHub Dairy Youngstock, and both found the returns that changed the way they raise calves.
Catching issues quicker
SenseHub Dairy Youngstock tags can start monitoring calves just 27 hours after birth, detecting animals that need attention before clinical signs of disease become visible. For Vander Waal, that meant catching sick calves about two days earlier than visual observation alone.
“Before the Youngstock tags, it was always a lagging thing,” Vander Waal said. “You were always a bit behind. With this technology, you can see the bigger picture, and each individual calf’s health every day.”
It’s not just Vander Waal. In a recent study conducted in Spain, calves monitored with SenseHub Dairy Youngstock saw a 63% reduction in mortality compared to a control group — nearly two fewer deaths per 100 calves.1 That’s worth an estimated $6,000 in saved replacement costs per 100 calves at current heifer prices.
For Borba, earlier detection meant catching problems before they became chronic. ROI came in the form of consistently healthier calves.
“After a few months using the Youngstock tags, we looked at the data, and a couple of things stood out,” Borba said. “Our re-treatments and reoccurs both went way down.”
Calves diagnosed with bovine respiratory disease (BRD) lose an average of 267 pounds of milk production in their first lactation, and that hit can follow a heifer well past the hutch.2 Borba has seen a small dip in his medication costs, but he knows the real value comes from healthier calves becoming productive cows.
“There’s going to be a little bit of return on ROI on medications, because it’s one dose instead of maybe three or four,” Borba said. “But the biggest return is just a healthier calf. That’s their biggest return on investment: calves that live and calves that are healthier.”
Employee efficiencies that matter
Vander Waal now prints a health report each morning and walks the pens looking for the LED light that signals a calf needs attention — narrowing a job that once meant individually assessing 350-plus calves.
“Now, I’m able to give an employee a list and treatment plan, and it takes judgment calls out of the process,” Vander Waal said.
Borba has seen the same shift at Lumar Dairy Farms, where a 300-calf operation is now managed by focusing on the roughly 30 that need attention each day. One study found that SenseHub Dairy Youngstock can save 46 minutes per day per 100 calves.1
“It just helps us follow our protocols,” Borba said. “You still need a good team, but this takes a good team to the next level.”
The verdict?
Ask these producers if it’s worth it, and the answer is consistent: a healthier start pays dividends for the life of the herd.
“Having a good replacement program is the life of your dairy,” said Diamond H Dairy’s Travis Hooker, another SenseHub Dairy Youngstock user. “In two years, those cows are the ones you are going to be milking, so you want to make sure those cows have the healthiest upbringing they possibly can.”
Ready to see what calf monitoring could do for your operation? Talk to your Merck Animal Health rep or visit SenseHub-Dairy.com to learn more.
1 Tejero C, Sales ML, Elvira L, Friedman Eran, Preto A (2024). Comparative use of automated behavior monitoring system versus on-farm standard operation procedure for youngstock health in a commercial dairy farm.
2 Buczinski, S, Achard, D & Timsit, E. Effects of calfhood respiratory disease on health and performance of dairy cattle: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Dairy. Sci. 104, 8214-8227, doi: https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2020-19941 (2021).
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