Getting Your Life Back with CowManager

Where he used to be focused on doing the work on-farm, the main priority for Paul is now balancing work with personal life. Due to some staff leaving, his workload increased heavily. This took valuable family time away, leaving his wife to do most of the parenting duties.

“I think about all those years my daughters were doing ballet. I never got to see any of it. I wasn’t there to say ‘well done’. And you know, it wasn’t a good mindset to be in when you realised you felt jealous of your wife, being able to be part of all those things.”

Keren agreed that something had to change. That’s when they heard of a dairy farmer nearby who had CowManager.

Ear Sensors As the Best Fit

After a little research, they dove right in. They already knew about cow monitoring systems and had considered collars before, but ultimately decided they weren’t a good fit for their farm. “I had heard from a friend down south with collars that he lost several. That didn’t sound too right. You still lose one or two sensors; that’s natural”, Paul says. They believe the possibility of losing a small tag is better than a collar getting lost or stuck and potentially harming the animals.

Paul and Keren were dedicated to find a system that aligned with their values, as well as having the most accurate data. The non-invasive design of CowManager ear sensors was a really nice bonus. “It’s just an ear tag, we put those in anyway, and it’s what the cows are used to”, according to Keren.

Paul adds: “It’s not the same calibre as an EID tag, it lasts a lot longer. I did do a little research into CowManager’s origins and what they were trying to achieve, and it wasn’t too dissimilar to what I’m trying to achieve.”

“The accuracy of the data is awesome”

After making their choice, the collecting of data started. They installed CowManager in a flash, and come next mating they had about four to five months of data and two months of milking data on each cow. “We had no reason to not trust the data”, Paul says.

A big plus for Keren and Paul was measuring ear temperature. CowManager sends alerts when a cow’s temperature changes compared to her average or the herd average. “You think, how on earth can the ear tell temperature? But it does, and there’s a lot of bearing on that”, Paul says.

Now equipped with over 16 months of data, the Leslies have become very confident using the system and the provided information. “The accuracy of the data is awesome. It’s evolving that quickly, and CowManager is always making improvements.”

While using and trusting the data, Keren could see Paul’s confidence grow. “He can marry up what’s happening on the screen and what’s happening in real life quite well”, she says.

“The beauty of CowManager is that it’s a piece of technology that adds significant value. You don’t know how well you do things until you have a bit of technology to compare your decisions to”, Paul adds.

Having Health Covered

Not only has Paul’s confidence grown, the herd’s health has improved as well due to the combination of CowManager data alongside farming knowledge.

The Leslies understand the importance of managing down cows quickly so they can get back on their feet. CowManager’s alerts help them to stay on top of the issue. Paul: “Getting to a cow that was suspicious because she might be starting to get wobbly, addressing her issues before she even went down and having a sure-footed animal walking into the shed the next morning was absolute gold.”

Originally they installed the system to help with fertility and mating but now they’ve found the alerts are helpful in other areas as well. “You put in a product for one particular benefit. It’s one of those side benefits, actually knowing when a cow has stopped eating, or moving, and it’s picking her up as being suspicious”, Paul says.

Knowing that CowManager had herd health covered, Paul and Keren started focusing on their own physical and mental well-being.

Keren: “In trusting the technology, you’re going easy on your body too because tail painting was tiring.” Paul, like many farmers, was having challenges with his physical health due to farming. Tail painting was increasingly causing issues like back pain. “Your health is just as important as the cow’s health, and CowManager is so much easier on the body. He was a happier and stress-free farmer. It was good”, Keren says.

With CowManager monitoring the cows at all times, Paul is free to sometimes step away from the farm to switch off. To spend some time with his family, knowing that alerts will come through to his phone if a cow is not well.

“I don’t wear a watch. The time is less important unless it’s to get the kids to some particular event. They’ll remember that mum and dad were part of that journey”, Paul says.

Making Mating Much Easier

Having the Fertility Module made heaps of difference to the usually stress-filled weeks of mating season. Paul does all the AI himself, so accurate heat detection is extremely important.

Using CowManager for heat detection did make Paul second-guess himself at times. He was certain a cow wasn’t in heat, but the system said she was. Eventually, that only gave him more confidence in using the data. “I started to think, how many heats over the course of a year do you actually miss?”

“He’s religiously a tail painter”, Keren interferes.

Paul nods in agreement. “I touched it up night and morning, so I was constantly jumping up and down, not focusing on the actual milking.”

After day two of mating, Paul and Keren thought it would be more beneficial for their herd to trust CowManager completely so they could focus on other aspects of animal care. For the rest of mating, they let the ear sensor technology do its thing.

Using the data alongside his farming experience showed the most success; applying some management to the data and use it as a tool. “A small bit of management and basic stockmanship on a cow goes a long way, and if one cow gets put up that shouldn’t have been, that’s better than the constant number of cows that are missed.”

“In terms of heat, it’s the trust in the data. I think that’s the biggest transition in the thought process you’ve got to undertake. You have to trust the data in front of you.”

Never Going Back

CowMananger is passionate about getting the right results for farmers and their animals. It’s not one size fits all, and each farmer and farm deserve a personalised approach.

“The sense of compassion behind what they’re assisting you with, any time, and the work effort is phenomenal. My son and I went to a rugby game, and Jared (National Sales Manager) was there. He remembered who I was, and I was quickly trying to think who he was. There’s only one of him, but that says a lot about the kind of business it is.”

The Leslies are clear on one thing: The CowManager system isn’t going anywhere.

“If this business here is driven by my wife and I, we weren’t going to be doing this in ten years, and that’s the key thing I couldn’t get past. Now, the data is accurate, the system is tight. Why would we ever go back?”