News
Summer 2010: News from eCow
Trials and testing of our Rumen Analyzer™ technology continue in Austria and Ireland. For more information on these trials just contact us.
Spring 2010: News from eCow
This eCow is celebrating its 3rd birthday and a mention in ComputeScotland. It is good to see that the collar system that Toby Mottram and Paul Devlin invented in 2006 for the ITI CBM Programme is reaching the market. eCow continues its own independent lines of research to improve cow health and fertility and welcomes collaboration with scientists, farmers and engineers. This site is dedicated to making information available in the public domain.
Continued custmer longitudinal trials of the Rumen Analyzer™ are yielding interesting data . A continuous stream of pH and temperature data is available at settable intervals of 1-59 minutes. The data sheet shows the format of the files and some ways to analyse it. We find 15 minute intervals ideal for rumen pH monitoring but drinking behaviour and its effect on temperature is best monitored with 2 minute intervals. The data is downloaded by holding our handheld tablet PC against the ribs and using the touchscreen to activate the software.
One day we'll get a bolus into a pale cow so that we can get better pictures!
Toronto Precision Dairy 2010
March 2-4th Toby Mottram attended the Precision Dairy Conference to present recent work with eCollar and Rumen Analyzer. The well attended conference mixed pragmatic farming and high quality science.
The Rumen Analyzer presentation discussed the potential for extending the life of the bolus from current target of 90 days to 3 years. Our opinion is that this is now a definite possibility and we are looking for startegic partners to take this technology forward.
Helsinki
December 8th 2009 Toby Mottram gave an invited lecture at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Agriculture. The lecture featured some of the history of robotic milking and the opportunities to develop new monitoring techniques for dairy cows. eCow thanks Matti Pastell for the invitation.
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Copenhagen
A number of authorities are suggesting that we should kill all the cows to save the global environment, this is a mistake based on our ability to monitor dairy cows intensely and ignore the emissions of alternative land uses. In the developed world there are approximately 60 million cows producing milk for 3 bn people. There are about 1.6 bn cattle in the world all of which produce methane by digesting cellulose from grass and other vegetation and producing very little dairy products. Dairy cows in the developed world produce less methane per litre of milk output than those in the less developed world and contribute a tiny proportion of global methane emissions.
eCow now ranks top on Google if you searched for "monitoring of dairy cows" which is what we do.
Dairy Event - September 16th & 17th
eCow exhibited the development of the Rumen Analyzer™ at Dairy Event and introduced many friends old and new to our team. email us at info@ecow.co.uk about the availability of new products for monitoring dairy cow health and welfare.
Compute Scotland
The outcome of the CBM program gets a write up. We are currently looking for researchers interested in Milk Fever (hypocalcaemia) and dystocia to use the EHG system pictured
eCow sponsored the JIAC conference in Wageningen in July 2009 and Toby was pleased to talk about our services and products to friends old and new.
