With the introduction of the smaXtec 360 bolus system, farmers now have access to cow monitoring with an unprecedented scope of performance. Building on the company’s existing bolus system, the smaxTec 360 is now able to play a pioneering role in cattle management, especially in the field of early detection of diseases through the collection and combination of a diverse and new set of information.
The information collected by the smaXtec 360 rumen bolus is:
- body temperature;
- drinking behavior;
- activity;
- heat stress;
- rumination;
- eating times;
- rumen motility; and
- heart rate.
Rumination, eating times, rumen motility and heart rate are all additions to the capabilities of the company’s original bolus, and the measurement of the final two parameters is unique to smaXtec.
The data collected allows three modules to be offered within the smaXtec 360 system:
- health;
- reproduction; and
- feeding.
Farmers choose one, two or all three modules, and they can select and deselect modules for each individual animal. If action is required, smaXtec sends a notification directly to a nominated smartphone or PC.
The combination of all the values noted above enables uniquely comprehensive monitoring of dairy cows and contributes significantly to improving animal welfare and animal health. The collected information and its interpretation allows even faster detection of physiological changes and disorders and provide farmers with precise recommendations for action.
“This makes smaXtec 360 by far the most innovative system, which sets new standards in the monitoring of dairy cows,” the company’s chief executive, Dr Stefan Rosenkranz, said. “Especially with regard to health monitoring, the additional information is of great benefit and contributes significantly to improving the health of the herd.
“The early detection of diseases makes it possible to act early and thus reduce medication, especially antibiotics, as many customers confirm. For example, on one farm with 1,500 cows, the number of cows in the hospital or sick pen was reduced by a third.”
smaXtec 360 allows the continuous measuring of rumen motility possible for the very first time. The rumen is the cow’s “engine”, and plays a key role in health as well as productivity. Rumen motility describes all movements in the rumen – that is, the contractions of the muscles in the forestomach. This process is responsible for mixing, ruminating and moving the fermented mixture of food into the omasum.
Motility is a very useful parameter as it immediately changes in parallel with changes in body condition, and the farmer can intervene at a very early stage. Numerous factors influence motility and can be continuously monitored by measuring it. These include:
- inflammatory process and diseases;
- feed composition and ration design;
- rumen health and rumen acidification; and
- stress.
In addition, smaXtec 360 can draw conclusions about the feeding and rumination behaviour of the cow based on the measurement of rumen motility.
This new cow monitoring system is important for farming practice on a number of levels and will impact on the health and lifetime of the animals, as well as the use of resources and the reduction of medication usage, especially antibiotics. Early detection of physiological problems means fewer treatments are required. The combination of new benefits was instrumental in the smaXtec 360 being awarded a EuroTier 2018 silver medal for innovation – the original smaXtec bolus concept was also awarded a silver medal in 2010.
smaXtec 360 also massively reduces the farmer’s workload as many routine tasks are taken care of by the system. smaXtec focuses on easy and intuitive applicability for farmers in their everyday lives. Using the system has a positive effect on all areas of a dairy farm, and makes a significant contribution to its profitability.
The smaXtex 360 bolus is administered to the cow only once, when she reaches 300kg in weight; it drops down into the rumen and remains there for life. The unit’s battery lasts at least four years, and the bolus will make measurements and transmit the data it records every 10-minutes. This data is automatically transferred through an on-farm network, and is transferred to the cloud for analysis. Using the smaXtec Messenger information platform, farmers can access all the data collected, but they can also rest assured that if any action is required, alarms will be sent via push notifications either in the smartphone app or via email.
Naturally, good animal health is one of the most important factors for animal welfare. With heart rate as an indicator of animal welfare, smaXtec sets an example in the dairy industry. In combination with the parameters for health and behaviour monitoring, as well as information about stress resulting from heat stress, stress situations can be immediately identified and reduced by farmers in the future. Thus, for the first time, smaXtec actually makes animal welfare measurable. This may, in view of increasing consumer interest and especially considering the current media focus on this topic, lead to exciting developments in the future.
Austria-based smaXtec has been developing sensors for dairy cows for almost 10 years and is the market leader in intra-ruminal measurement. Sales of cow monitoring systems for commercial dairy farms of all sizes first started in 2014, and so far, more than 40,000 sensors have been sold in more than 25 countries worldwide.
For more information visit https://smaxtec.com.
