Alltech is an international animal health company, the year to date has been a busy one for the fast growing business with a number of key announcements representing further good news for livestock farmers here in Ireland.

Alltech has confirmed that it will be featuring its unique ‘CowCentric’ dry cow feeding and management system at this year’s Ploughing.

“We will have a full scale, working model on the stand which will give visitors firsthand experience of how the system actually performs on-farm,” explained Alltech’s country manager Cathal McCormack.

The CowCentric System comprises of a number of components, those being consultancy, the Smartfeeder, data management and Precision

Effective dry cow management goes to the very core of successful dairy farming. If the cow is not managed properly in the run-up to calving, from a nutritional point of view, she will badly underperform during her subsequent lactation.

“Farmers using the system have found it very easy to use, they can enter data through their cell phone or through the screen on the side of the Smartfeeder. Once they have their cows entered into the system, they simply provide their dry cows with a mixture of forages and the system takes care of the rest” Cathal McCormack further explained.

“The Smartfeeder, designed and manufactured by Dairymaster, recognises the cow courtesy of an electronic button tag in her ear. The Smartfeeder then feeds each cow individually based on her days from calving, body condition score and health status. The diets are formulated to optimize cow health and condition and ultimately to ensure cows calve strong, with very few health related issues such as milk fever, retained cleanings and metritis.”

Cathal continued:
“We have a large number of farmers on the CowCentric system and there is a consistency in their comments. Cows are in fantastic condition at calving and the udders are filling really well a few days from calving.

“What is really encouraging is that cows on the CowCentric system are showing strong heats within 30 days of calving. This is a good sign that cows are in good energy balance at that stage. For any farmer that is milking around 120 cows, the benefits in terms of easy of management, labour saving, reduced health issues at calving, increased milk production and better fertility will lead to a 12 month return on investment, where the CowCentric system is concerned.”