Currently, there is no reliable system for detecting estrus events in farms with combined housing systems. Traditional, visual estrus detection is extremely labor-intensive and often presents insurmountable challenges, especially for part-time farms. As a result, the herd's fertility performance can decline significantly. The associated economic damage (both direct and indirect, due to the earlier culling of animals) is enormous.
However, with the hood-rumen motor system, an additional parameter has recently become available that is independent of the housing system and should therefore enable higher accuracy in heat detection.
In the current project, several farms practicing combined housing systems are being equipped with rumen sensors in cooperation with the company Smaxtec and the Salzburg Chamber of Agriculture. By comparing the sensor data with milk samples from individual animals, the identification of estrus-related patterns in the reticulum rumen motility will be made possible. Based on this, the Smaxtec system will subsequently be improved and will be able to reliably identify animals in heat even on farms using combined housing systems.
