Cogent Breeding Limited has today used the first day of the 2014 Livestock Event to launch a new reproductive service which combines the company’s next generation PinPoint heat detection system with cutting edge cloud-based technology and Cogent’s unrivalled technical expertise to maximise improvements in reproductive performance and boost farm profits.
Branded ‘Precision Reproductive Solutions’, the new service brings together these three key elements to create a unique fertility management solution for each individual herd. Current users of the system have reported significant reductions in days to conception (down by an average of 15 days) and improvements in 21-day pregnancy rates by an average of four percentage points in the first six months of use.
Critically, there is no cost to the farmer for the heat detection hardware or herd management software. Instead, Cogent installs the Pinpoint heat detection system and cloud-based management software and provides a highly trained technician to facilitate the entire system. Each installation is tailored to the needs of the individual herd with the farmer paying a fee on a ‘per-cow, per-annum’ basis according to the level of input required.
The cloud-based software which sits at the heart of Precision has been developed exclusively by Cogent and draws together information from across the farm, collates that data in a single location and allows it to be transferred to and from third parties such as vets and nutritionists. It also makes it easier to record and obtain information from milk recording organisations, pedigree herdbooks and the BCMS.
The new technology is underpinned by a high-quality herd management service which is delivered by a team of highly-skilled and committed Cogent technicians. Monthly farm meetings are a core component of Precision, when the farmer gets together with the farm’s Cogent reproductive specialist and the user’s choice of advisor, such as nutritionist or vet, who discuss the information collected and how ongoing improvements in fertility can be made. The customer is also able to nominate specialists they’d like to have access to the information, available as either a paper copy or for PC, laptop or SmartPhone.
Speaking at the Livestock Event at the NEC in Birmingham, Michael Phillips from Cogent explained that Precision is the latest Cogent venture targeted at improving farm profitability.
“Modern dairy farming businesses generate a huge amount of valuable data, which if processed and analysed properly can help farm and herd managers make better informed management decisions. All too often, however, a lot of this data remains unused, or at worst, misinterpreted,” Mr Phillips explains.
“Cogent has therefore developed Precision to enable dairy farmers to harness the power of technology so that they can manage this data effectively to get the most from their herd. The technology is fully supported by our expanding team of fully trained and dedicated AI technicians, all of whom offer not only the very best AI service, but are also trained to help customers improve whole herd fertility.
“Precision’s new cloud-based software completes the service by making it easy to access the data generated by PinPoint and the AI technician’s report together with fertility or veterinary information from any source,” Mr Phillips adds. “By collating this key data into one centralised format, farmers and herd managers are able to have a more thorough understanding of each cow and are therefore able to make better, more informed management decisions that are right for each individual animal and for the herd as a whole. That in turn paves the way to more profitable milk production.
“The system’s ability to send information to BCMS and MROs (Milk Recording Organisations) has also cut duplication and slashed paperwork on the farms already using the service,” Mr Phillips adds. “But most important of all has been the significant improvement in reproductive performance that these farms have already seen. These include an average reduction in days to conception of 15 days and an improvement in 21-day pregnancy rate of four percentage points in their six months of use.
“Put simply, Precision delivers more pregnancies, improves milk yields and saves precious time. It is the fertility management service every herd needs and every farmer has been crying out for,” Mr Phillips concludes.
Cogent will be demonstrating how its Precision Reproductive Solutions work throughout the Livestock Event on stand GE34.
