Answers to common questions about remote monitoring of beef cows
Allflex® Livestock Intelligence FAQ about SenseHub™ Beef
What is SenseHub Beef and how does it help the cattle producer?
SenseHub Beef is an innovative product from Allflex. Special ear tags collect data and help you know if a cow is in heat, is sick or not eating right. The reports can go to your phone in near real time, so cow status is literally in the palm of your hand 24/7.
How do producers use SenseHub Beef?
Whether they run larger or smaller operations, they are all busy and need more time to do more things, personally or in business. Maybe they have jobs in town, run a second business, do things in their community or have active kids. SenseHub Beef helps them do these things at the same time they monitor their cows.
How does SenseHub create value for a producer?
During breeding season, SenseHub will detect when your cows come into estrus, rate their heat intensity and offer a breeding a window for optimum timing. You can use this insight to increase first-cycle conception rates. This can improve weaning weights. You also can use this data identify early cycling yearly heifers. Those are ideal replacement candidates. The report also tells you which bred cows come back into heat, so you can quickly see to their fertility status or rebreeding. Confirmed breeding dates may also be helpful during calving season. The bottom line for many producers is increasing conception rates, which they can leverage to produce more weaned pounds per exposed female and raise more high-value A.I. calves and heifers.
Does SenseHub monitor health year-round?
Rumination is a sensitive indicator of wellbeing – it tends to drop when a cow is distressed, off feed or getting sick. At early onset, SenseHub alerts you to do a health check on that animal. A common concern is to monitor cows during a change of feed – at turnout onto green pasture, getting a batch of spoiled feed or shifting to corn stalks and being exposed to too much grain. At other times we need to stay on top of seasonal illnesses. SenseHub will detect possible problems, often before you can see any signs of them, and generate a list of cows to inspect.
How do producers take advantage of the health reports?
There are many ways to pre-empt problems with this kind of information. SenseHub has helped identify calving difficulty, abortion, digestive issues from spoiled feed, animals that are down and not getting up, stress from weaning or predation. Checking an animal may save her life or reduce treatment costs. The data also can show you that an animal is returning to normal, signs she is recovering normally, or continuing to crash. You can monitor grazing during heat stress or see when pastures are running low on grass or if feed truck drivers are on time. With SenseHub Beef, you pick up on subtle yet critical clues to herd status – often things that are unique to how you manage your operation.
How complex is this product?
SenseHub Beef is easy to use. The interface is simple and makes it easy to network your operation, so you are all on the same page. The product has a basic dashboard view, essentially a to-do list. Producers also can dive into more detailed data visualization to look deeper into the status of an animal.
What’s the bottom line?
There is never enough time but there is plenty of stress and pressure on how we use our time. With SenseHub Beef, cattle producers can make more timely decisions on some of their most critical management practices. They also can use the system to get more done at work or spend more time with family and other pastimes. We provide the information to make your day easier and more efficient.
