Body condition score camera among new DeLaval dairy products

A MAJOR multi-pronged product launch in Melbourne this week has set the scene for Elmore, with dairy giant DeLaval ready to unveil new releases at the field days.

3D imaging: The DeLaval body condition scoring camera (BCS) is designed to calculate the condition of cows — the body fat reserves — and free up man hours on the farm. The system tells farmers if they have been underfeeding or overfeeding individual cows, groups or herds.

A MAJOR multi-pronged product launch in Melbourne this week has set the scene for Elmore, with dairy giant DeLaval ready to unveil new releases at the field days.

Heading the list is the Swedish company’s new herd management platform, DelPro Farm Manager.

It is software designed to centralise information on a dairy farm, has updated data storage and reporting and analysis tools.

Close behind are DeLaval’s automated Body Conditioning Score camera, a touchscreen direct-data display for the milking platform, on-deck teat sprayer for rotaries, a new swing-arm for swing-over sheds and a new milking point controller.

Business development manager (herd management) Peter Wilson said key aspects to the DelPro system were “the ability to feed cows and the facility for creating standard operating procedures through a flow chart which points to clear actions”.

“That’s a very powerful tool in terms of managing your workers on-farm,” he said.

Features of the software include everything from the production of automatic vet lists and herd and milking summaries to timed artificial insemination and feed ration calculations.

For large-scale farms, multiple controllers can be connected to one master control unit so all operations can be monitored from a central point.

Internet connections mean data can be automatically and securely exchanged with third parties such as vets, nutritionists and consultants.

The new Body Condition Scoring (BCS) camera is designed to remove the guesswork and potential inaccuracies that come with visual and tactile scoring.

Mr Wilson said one of the company’s key motivators was “automating the manual processes we see on-farm”.

“We saw people manually scoring cows and thought we could develop a system to do that while boosting productivity and freeing up man-hours,” he said.

“Development has taken us 18 months to two years, but Elmore Field Days will be the first time it goes on show and is available for sale.

“The key benefit is managing the condition of your cow and judging whether she is a good feed converter.

“Body condition scoring is assessment of the body fat reserves of the animal.

“Once she calves, the cow will lose condition in order to produce milk for the calf, so it’s a matter of managing that process in order to improve the chances of another pregnancy.”

The BCS camera works by taking a 3D image of cows’ backs — every cow, every day.

It calculates the body condition score of each animal and sends it to DelPro Farm Manager where users can view graphs of individual animals, groups or the entire herd.

The software can also be set to send an alert if a cow falls below a certain score or her BCS trend is outside the range.

“It warns you if you are underfeeding or overfeeding a cow, group or herd and enables maximum feed efficiency,” Mr Wilson said.

For more information, visit the DeLaval site at Elmore or go to its website.