Smarter dairy farming

SMARTERFARMING and Ubisense revolutionise Livestock Management

Horsens, Denmark, Cambridge, UK, Jul 23rd 2009 - SMARTERFARMING and Ubisense, the world Leader in Precise Real-Time Location Systems, announce the results of their first three “CowDetect” installations in working Dairy Farms in Denmark

Aage Hindhede, a tenth generation dairy farmer based in Ringkøbing-Skjern, Denmark, is a man with a vision who continues to keep his family business at the forefront of modern farming methods. While managing his dairy herd, Aage thought that if he could detect changes in behavior of his cows in real-time then he would have a much better view of their health and welfare. His vision coupled with the innovative skills of his partner Keld Florczak, CEO of SMARTERFARMING, allowed him to realize his vision and “CowDetect” was born. A system that visualizes and monitors the behavior of cows in real-time to a positional accuracy of 15 cm! The system has been installed not only in the Hindhede family farm but also in an additional two farms tracking over 1000 cows every second.

The Danish science office AgroTech has already made some calculations to understand the value and possible benefits of knowing the real-time position of each animal. AgroTech - Institute for Agri Technology and Food Innovation - is a Danish Government Authorised Technology Service Institute working with knowledge transfer in the field of biology based natural science and technology. For cows in lactation the potential value of this knowledge is said to be EUR 315 – 355 per animal if the information is converted into action by the farm manager. In addition there are many soft benefits derived by using the system such as better animal welfare and health. One example is a well-known eating behaviour known as ketoses. Normally 3.6 days before the disease can be seen, the cow’s eating time decreases significantly. This change in behavior can automatically be detected by the real-time location system and the dairy manager can be alerted.

“Knowing the precise real-time location of animals will revolutionise the industry”, says Professor Don Broom, University of Cambridge and world expert in animal welfare. “For years farm managers and vets have needed to know more precisely the patterns of movement that will allow them to correlate behavior with health and it appears that SMARTERFARMING and Ubisense have made that possible”.

Farmer John Torrence, of UK Farmers Cooperative, said “Having seen the system first hand, it is clear that there are immediate benefits and a payback in less than 12 months”.

About SMARTERFARMING AS

SMARTERFARMINGAS is based on an idea from a farmer in need of better management data for improving the production in his barn. From idea to real technology has been a long process, but thanks to patient investors and energy from the people involved “CowDetect” is now a reality. SMARTERFARMINGAS is a public company having the needed financial strength to bring the knowledge and technology to the market and further improve and add features to the system.

http://www.cowdetect.com/