Early identification of health challenges is one of the most effective ways to reduce disease severity, minimize treatment costs and support long term herd productivity. While experienced caretakers have always relied on stockmanship and close observation, today’s operations can benefit from data beyond what we can consistently monitor with our own eyes. Monitoring tools provide an additional layer of insight, helping recognize subtle changes in behavior, intake or environment before clinical signs are obvious.
Dr. Tiago Tomazi, dairy technical services veterinarian with Merck Animal Health, shared his advice at the Dairy Cattle Reproductive Council annual meeting on how the dairy landscape has progressed, allowing us to use monitoring technologies and management practices for improved animal health.
“If we go back to the ‘80s, we can say that dairy farming was still dominated by small-and-medium-sized family farms, right? We used to call cows by name,” Tomazi says. “Then the ‘90s and 2000s came, and there was a marked acceleration in the growth of large scale operations. There was an explosion of studies, of investigations, and scientific investigation that helped a lot to bring us to the point we’re at nowadays as far as reproduction and production in dairy cows and cattle health.”
Following this growth in knowledge came the development of monitoring technologies to assist producers and veterinarians identify potential animal issues earlier.
That being said, data-driven decision making does not necessarily require advanced technology. In many herds, structured record keeping, routine scoring (such as body condition scoring, lameness scoring or feed bunk assessments), and consistent visual checks are foundational monitoring practices. The goal is to identify patterns and changes over time, not just isolated events.
Combine Technology with Strong Management Practices
When technology is added on top of strong stockmanship, the combination can be especially powerful.
“Point No. 1 is that monitoring systems are not a diagnostic tool,” Tomazi reminds. “But they help in identifying a cow that’s not having a good day.”
These activity monitoring technologies are not meant to tell you what ailment the cow has, but rather to alert you that a cow may be worth checking up on.
“Biology is not math,” Tomazi says. “While math uses formulas, numbers and calculations to get you the exact result, biology [has to] take into consideration a set of factors associated with the biology of the cow and the environment.”
While a variety of wearable tools exist for the earlier recognition of health changes, the interpretation of the data remains critical. Similar patterns can have multiple causes. For example, a decrease in rumination may reflect heat stress, early illness, social stress or rumen upset. Likewise, changes in activity could indicate estrus, discomfort or pain. Connecting these data points to clinical reasoning and management is key.
Application Evidence from Research
Data from these monitoring tools can be applied for health predictions in a number of scenarios.
Chabel and colleagues from the University of Florida evaluated of over 4,500 dairy cattle across three commercial dairy herds wearing automated monitoring devices designed for estrous detection. They found early postpartum estrous characteristics were valuable indicators of reproductive potential; they were able to identify cows at risk for suboptimal fertility. By combining these characteristics with other health, genetic and environmental data, they were able to improve the prediction of fertility outcomes and provide targeted reproductive management for the cattle.
A series of three studies by Stangaferro and colleagues at Cornell University investigated the use of automated monitoring devices for the identification of health issues in dairy cattle. They found health index scores (calculated using an algorithm using rumination and activity data) provided sensitive detection for cattle with metabolic and digestive disorders, reducing time to clinical diagnosis by approximately 2 days. However, this system was less sensitive for the detection of mastitis and metritis, being most effective for cattle with severe cases.
While these monitoring devices may not perfectly identify all health issues in your herd, they can certainly help identify some disease signs earlier than human observation alone. It’s also important to note that the implementation of these monitoring devices will be different from farm to farm.
“We have to take into consideration the level of disease protection you want at your farm as well as the feasibility and labor capabilities,” Tomazi says. “You can be very intensive, but if you don’t have the people to provide you with that intensity, then it makes everything harder. On the other hand, you can be less intensive and find that balance where you’re not going to compromise the reproduction or production during the location of those cows.”
Data Interpretation is just as Important
Training caretakers to recognize when and how to respond to monitoring data is just as important as selecting the technology. A monitoring system is only as good as the team interpreting it.
While the benefits can be significant, monitoring tools also introduce challenges. The amount of data generated can be overwhelming. Time and training is required to get the most out of your investment and use the data effectively. This provides a great opportunity for veterinarians and producers to work together in prioritizing the metrics that are the most actionable and will make the most impact on the operation’s herd health goals.
The Future with Monitoring Tools
Looking ahead, predictive models and machine learning based alerts are likely to play an increasing role in herd health programs. With these systems will come the need for increased expertise on interpretation, contextual decision making and ongoing evaluation of how monitoring tools fit into preventative care strategies.
“I think integration is what we are walking toward,” Tomazi says. “The integration of these technologies with biological factors and management factors all together will help us make decisions considering the specific scenario at each dairy farm.”
Ultimately, monitoring tools are most effective when combined with strong stockmanship and veterinary oversight. When data and observation inform each other, disease can be detected earlier, interventions become more targeted and herds can become healthier overall.
