Wearable tech has evolved from fitbits and smartwatches on human wrists to make it onto the ears, legs and necks of dairy cows, offering game-changing benefits for herd health, productivity and farm efficiency.
This technology offers a powerful opportunity to really move a farm forwards.
One of the most significant opportunities offered by wearable technology in dairy farming is the ability to monitor individual cow health around the clock.
The various devices such as smart collars, leg bands and ear tags are equipped with sensors that track a variety of vital indicators including activity levels, rumination, temperature and resting or eating times.
The data collected from the device is fed into algorithms that help to create the various alerts that the tech is well known for.
This data allows farmers to detect early signs of illness, such as mastitis or gut upsets, often before any physical symptoms become visible. For example, a drop in rumination along with a reduced or irregular activity pattern may indicate that a cow is unwell and trigger a health alert.
Early intervention not only improves animal welfare but can also reduce treatment costs and prevent production losses.
For many years, I have been advising farmers to use more non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for mastitis cases.
Many people already do for the obviously sick cases, but many of the ‘health alerts’ are for mastitis cows with only quite mild visible clinical signs yet they are suffering from reduced rumination and activity indicating that they are actually systemically affected and would likely really benefit from a dose of NSAIDs.
Wearable technology can also play a crucial role in enhancing reproductive performance.
Accurate heat detection is consistently a challenge for dairy farmers, but wearable tech can now identify the changes associated with heat more reliably than heat detection alone and some advanced systems even track hormone levels or use machine learning (AI) algorithms to predict the optimal breeding time.
With real-time alerts sent directly to a smartphone or farm computer, and when integrated into other farm management software and hardware (such as sort gates) farmers can better time inseminations, increasing the chances of pregnancy.
In addition to health and reproduction, wearable tech can offer insight into feeding behaviour.
Sensors can monitor how much time cows spend eating, drinking and lying down — key indicators of comfort and productivity.
When paired with automated feeding systems, this information can help optimise nutrition.
By understanding individual cow behaviour, farmers can also fine-tune their management.
For instance, if the data show less activity or rumination than usual across the whole herd it may indicate that there is a herd level dietary problem and early adjustments based on the data rather than waiting several days until the changes become obvious, can lead to a healthier, more productive herd.
In many cases, these wearable tech systems aggregate the data and present it in user-friendly way.
Some of the platforms can even automate alerts, generate reports or suggest some corrective actions based on analytics allowing us to capture the ‘expert knowledge’ that has been embedded in the systems.
Especially in larger herds, this can be a game changer. Instead of walking the herd and trying to spot problems visually, farmers can rely on the technology to flag individual cows that might need a little extra TLC, saving time and enabling proactive care.
‘Health alert’ cows should be thoroughly examined and treated according to an appropriate protocol and not just randomly treated with antibiotics.
While there’s often a significant upfront cost associated with adopting wearable technology, most farmers who I work with who have adopted the technology are generally satisfied with the purchase.
I am often asked what is the ‘best’ option and my consistent answer is that it is the one that best integrates with your current farm systems and equipment like dairy shed and sort gate infrastructure.
And in herds who are considering a major investment in new dairy equipment I always suggest that they consider how wearable tech might integrate with the new infrastructure to ensure seamless compatibility.
ProDairy promotes proactive care and I believe that wearable technology in its various forms helps to achieve healthier cows and better welfare outcomes and I consider the technology a valuable management tool.
Dr Rob Bonanno is a ProDairy regional lead veterinarian.
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