Tulare High School dairy students will be the first students in the world to use technology that monitors temperature and automatically sends sick cow alerts.

GREELEY, COLORADO, UNITED STATES, February 6, 2015 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The local high school dairy is one of a few schools in the country with its own dairy. They have joined forces with DVM Systems to closely monitor the health of its cows using an electronic capsule that the cow swallows to send hourly core body temperatures for each cow to its TempTrack® software. The system automatically sends health alerts to a smartphone or other wireless device providing up to 3 days advance notice of potential illnesses often prior to any visible symptoms. Students at the school will be the first in the nation and probably the world to use the latest technology to identify when their cows are getting sick helping to reduce the severity of the illness and allowing earlier treatment.

Jennifer Sousa, a teacher and Future Farmers of America advisor, along with Chris Van Dyk, the dairy manager, will be working with 55 students on programs designed to teach animal science in the agricultural oriented Dairy, Biology and Ag1 classes at all grade levels of the school. The dairy provides an opportunity for over 900 students per year from three local high schools to experience a dairy first hand.

DVM Systems is also planning to launch additional software modules this year using the same equipment to advise dairies of when cows are ready to breed and to notify them of a 24 hour period when a calf is likely to be born. Based upon five years of research with Colorado State University, Nova Scotia Agricultural College, University of Kentucky, University of Florida, Oklahoma State University, and University of California at Davis, TempTrack® software analyzes thousands of temperatures for each animal using proprietary algorithms to identify illness early. By developing temperature baselines for individual animals, DVM is able to understand variations in circadian rhythms that highlight potential illnesses including mastitis, metritis, pneumonia and other illness that cause temperature variations. The company has even learned how to eliminate the effect on temperature caused by the cattle drinking water or from ambient temperature changes. Blind studies conducted in conjunction with the Colorado State University by Dr. Noa Roman-Muniz, Dairy Extension Professor, at a Colorado dairy showed that by using the DVM Systems cow temperature bolus, the TempTrack® software health alerts identified five times as many mastitis events and seven times as many metritis events than the control group. This research was published in the Journal of Dairy Science.

Ongoing research by DVM Systems with their research partners is attempting to break new ground in the area of automatic detection of ovulation using temperature, “an area in which there appear to be no other competitors at the present time” said their CEO, Kevin Wild. The company has gained the interest of several major players in the industry and expects that their products will help to significantly improve the task of assuring the health of dairy and beef cattle in small and large herds alike. This is especially important in operations that may be challenged in finding experienced workers. Scott Asnicar, DVM’s Vice President of Market Development, says that “while not all increases in temperature indicate a need for treatment, they do signify a response to an event such as illness, ovulation or calving which is important information for a herd manager to know.”

Temperature changes are also a precursor to parturition or when a cow gives birth to a calf. By continuously monitoring the temperature of a pregnant cow against her normal baseline, TempTrack® is capable of issuing an alert to a smart device such as an Android or Apple smartphone to alert the herdsman to a 24 hour period when the calf will most likely be born. On smaller farms, this can help them to better manage their time. Larger and smaller operations can use this information to be better prepared for a cow that may require advance treatment such as drenching with a calcium solution to prevent illness issues. After the birth of the calf, it is vitally important to identify cows that may have metritis and / or mastitis at a time when their defenses may be weaker. Dave Smith, previously the General Manager at the Shelton Dairy in LaSalle, Colorado, said “Yesterday, the DVM Systems’ alerts brought to my attention two cases of pneumonia that would have been very difficult to identify without the temperature alert. As a result, we were able to take action much sooner than previously possible, thus reducing cost and recovery time, and helping to maintain our milk production. On the same day, we also uncovered two cases of mastitis using the DVM system.”

DVM Systems has filed for a patent on their TempTrack® software which is already copyrighted.

DVM Systems LLC, a Greeley, Colorado company that developed the sophisticated software and SmartStock LLC, a Pawnee, Oklahoma company that designed the temperature monitoring equipment, teamed up to donate their software, equipment and services to help make the pilot program a success. The same system on a larger scale has been installed DVM Systems at commercial and university dairies in over a dozen countries across the world. For more information, email DVM Systems at info@dvmsystems.com, browse online at http://www.dvmsystems.com or visit them at the 2015 World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, February 10th through 12th at booth 6335 in the Farm Credit Dairy Center building.

Kevin Wild
DVM Systems, LLC
970 5064044 ext. 10
email us here

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