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How does the bolus stay in the cow ?
Our bolus is currently 200 g, 26.5 mm diameter and 115 mm long, the size of a large cow pill. When ingested or placed in the rumen by fistula it moves to the reticulum and stays there. If a cow ingests any debris such as stones it tends to migrate to the reticulum. Protecting the sensor against damage by stones and grit in the reticulum has been a major challenge.
How long does a bolus last ?
Our pH and temperature boluses are highly accurate for up to 90 days. Our boluses were designed for short, intermittent experiments and shut themselves off to conserve power when they are below 30C. They check the temperature at an interval you decide but typically 10 minutes. They can be kept on a cool shelf for 24 months. Each week in a rumen is equivalent to 2 months on the shelf. Battery life varies depending on usage patterns and so we are introducing a low cost return and refurbish policy for new customers to enable longer experiments.
Can we replace batteries ourselves ?
The power supply is a fully sealed cell soldered direct to the electronics and we require the boluses to be returned to us for checking and battery replacement or safe disposal. The rumen environment is very hostile to seals and our system cannot be serviced by the user. We can agree a price to continuously extend the life of your boluses on a return basis at modest cost.
How much data does the bolus provide ?
The bolus automatically takes a reading of pH, redox and temperature every minute when it is above 34C (in a cow ). It will store an average value of the pH and redox over whatever time period you set. Typically this is 15 minutes. The bolus can store up to 2700 lines of data (28 days at 96 readings per day). Data is only deleted on command from the control computer. The data is output in .csv format for your own eBolus data output.
How do you calibrate the bolus ?
Warm the bolus to 30+ degrees in buffer 4 and follow the instructions on the screen of the computer, it will tell you when to put the bolus into 7 or other buffer and calculate the gain and offset and transfer these data to the bolus. The process takes about 10 minutes. If you have purchased the redox option you then repeat the process in ORP solutions entering the mV values and paying close attention to the temperature. We advise customers to put the bolus in rumen liquor prior to calibration so that any of the initial drift due to the ionic structure of rumen is incorporated into the calibration.
How much does a bolus cost ?
Pricing is dependent on the number required and the time at which you need them, as we make to order and then hold a constant stock specifically for your requirements so that you that you can be sure of data continuity. Boluses can be returned to us for remanufacturing with new batteries. Redox sensing is an additional cost. Please email for a quote which is dependent on currency fluctuations that affect the price of the high quality components we source globally.
How long is delivery ?
At present we have an 8 week delivery time. We try to make a batch every month and thus if we know when you need boluses we will make extras for your needs.
Who designed the bolus ?
Toby Mottram designed of the first pH bolus when at Silsoe Research Institute. He tested the first wireless rumen pH bolus in 2003 for Pfizer and evolved the current design over 8 years at his own expense before setting up eCow. Since 2009 Seonaid Nimmo has been designing the production process and solving a number of technical problems.
