Heat detection: what are your options?

Heat detection aids differ from farm to farm, but the end goal for all is to help manage the breeding season and ensure as few heats are missed as possible.

Teagasc, in conjunction with ICBF, ran an online breeding week in mid-March, where it was highlighted that on average, heats are only lasting for eight hours, with 55% of cows being mounted for eight hours or less.

For this reason, Teagasc advised that there should be at least three periods of heat detection daily, along with the use of a heat detection aid.

Over the years, heat detection has evolved and technology now plays a huge part in increasing accuracy and reducing labour during the breeding season.

So, what heat detection aids are on the market?

A strip of paint roughly 15cm long by 5cm wide is applied to the tail head. When the cow is in standing heat, the paint is rubbed off.

This method has been adapted over the years, with tail paint sticks and spray paint now also being used in the same way.

Although tail paint is effective, there is a lot of labour involved, with paint needing to be topped up regularly. The use of different colour paints can help with breeding management, for example, every cow is painted red at the start of breeding and once served painted green, which can help highlight non-cycling cows.

The Tailpainter is a product designed in 2019 to speed up tail painting and make it safer. It allows you to apply tail paint from the pit while milking.

The kamar is placed between the hip bones using adhesive. The pressure from the brisket of the mounting animal causes the dye to move from the chamber, turning the kamar from white to red. As they are pressure sensitive, it requires approximately three seconds of pressure before turning red – this ensures the cow/heifer is in standing heat. Kamars cost approximately €2.20/cow.

Like the kamar, the scratch card is applied with an adhesive between the hips above the backbone.

When standing heat occurs, the protective layer is rubbed off by mounting herd mates and exposes a bright colour, which makes identifying cows in heat easy. Scratchcards can be bought for approximately €1.60/cow.

The use of a vasectomised or ‘teaser’ bull fitted with a chin-ball harness is a very effective way of heat detection.

The procedure must be carried out 40-60 days before the bull is let off with any heifers or cows. During mounting, the paint from the chin ball marks the cow/heifers back, making it easy to identify the animal in heat. It’s important to be aware of the safety concerns with this method, as like stock bulls, vasectomised bulls can be dangerous. The chinball harness costs about €160, not including the special chin ball paint, which can be bought for around €65 for 2.5l.

Censortec, a Kerry-based company, uses the Nedap Cow Control software. This is a collar-based heat detection and health monitoring system that works by tracking rumination, lying time and eating. It is not reliant on an internet connection for day-to-day use. Censortec has also teamed up with Alfco farm services, where cows showing signs of heat or illness will be drafted accordingly.

Some of the other distributors of the Nedap cow control system in Ireland are GEA, Lely and Pearson International. The total cost for 100 Censortec collars and the base station is approximately €15,000 plus VAT and it has an eight year lifespan with a five year warranty.

The activity monitors are linked to the DelPro management programme. Farmers who already have the management software can upgrade to activity monitors for €10,400 plus VAT for 100 cows. Farmers without any existing software will need to pay €13,340 plus VAT for 100 cows.

The Dairymaster MooMonitor is a heat and health monitoring system which tracks feeding, resting, ruminating and activity. The MooMonitor is a standalone system that sends the information recorded to the MooMonitor+ app. When teamed up with the Dairymaster sort gate, it means any cow in heat or sick can be presented to you easily. The MooMonitor has a lifespan of eight years and there is a five year 100% warranty.

There is currently a pre-breeding special offer running to the end of April 2021, with the collars costing €105/collar plus VAT (rrp €125/collar plus VAT) and the base station is priced at €4,000 plus VAT. Applying the pre-breeding special offer, the MooMonitor system for 100 cows plus the base station is coming in at €14,500 plus VAT, compared to the standard price of €16,500 plus VAT.

SmaXtec is a bolus that is predominately used as a health monitoring system. It records body temperature to a 0.3°C accuracy, which helps detect infections early before any clinical signs emerge. The bolus also records water intake and frequency. Heat detection is based on the cow’s activity against the group/herd to a claimed 97% accuracy.

Onset of calving is also detected through the monitoring of body temperature.

Each bolus comes with a lifetime warranty and costs €40 per cow plus VAT. There is also a €2 monthly charge per bolus. The base station is site dependant, but on average it comes in at €6,000 plus VAT. For 100 cows, it works out at approximately €10,000 plus VAT, not including monthly charges.

SenseHub has recently been bought by Allflex Livestock Intelligence as part of MSD Animal Health. Available as an ear tag (battery life three years minimum/warranty 2.5 years) or neck collar (battery life seven years minimum/warranty five years), Sensehub monitors the fertility, heath and nutrition of each animal.

Animal information is collected via the tag or collar and sent to a controller in the yard, uploaded to an online cloud and alerts are sent to the farmer via a smartphone app and or laptop.

This way, if there is an internet disruption, data is not lost as it remains in the controller.

When joined with the Allflex sorting gate, cows showing signs of heat or illness will be automatically drafted for attention.

Starting from April this year, SenseHub will be integrated with ICBF. The ear tag, heat and health package is costing €70/cow plus VAT and the ear tag, heat, health and distress alert costs €80/cow plus VAT.

The collar, heat and health package is costing €100/collar plus VAT and the collar heat, health and distress alerts package is priced at €120/collar plus VAT. The base station is costing €2,500 plus VAT.

Finance is available through MSD’s distributor EFS Mullingar.

The MooCall system uses electronic ear tags, which last for life, and are attached to all cows and heifers. A MooCall collar worn by a stock bull or vasectomised bull picks up on cow/bull proximity, mounting behaviour and bull activity levels, to determine when a cow or a heifer is in heat.

MooCall recommends you have one collar per 50 cows/heifers.

To get set up for 100 cows, you will need two collars and 100 tags costing €3,000 plus VAT and there is an annual renewal fee of €630.

Distributed by World Wide Sires, CowManager is an ear tag-based device with an accelerometer that records rumination, eating/resting activity and ear skin temperature.

CowManager claims a 98.6% accuracy for heat detection. Fertility and health alerts are sent to the farmer, highlighting cows that require attention. The battery life of the tag is a minimum of seven years. The hardware station starts from a cost of €1,150 plus VAT.

Each tag costs €30 plus VAT. There is an annual subscription fee of €23/cow, which covers updates, technical support and a 100% rolling warranty. The total cost for 100 cows starts at €4,150. not including the subscription fee.

Cork-based ag-tech company HerdInsights manufactures and sells herd health and fertility monitoring devices around the world.

HerdInsights uses a monitoring device on a neck collar to monitor rumination, resting and feeding times, while also monitoring heat activity, mounting and chin resting.

Information is collected in a Gateway box, which then sends an alert to the farmer if a cow is bulling or if there is a health issue.

The battery life is averaging seven years and there is a five year warranty. The Gateway box

costs €3,500 and it is €110 per collar, coming in at a total cost of €14,500 for 100 cows all prices excluding vat.

There are other payment options in the form of a subscription model, or interest free finance is also available.