Largest vertical growing center in U.S. to be built on Texas dairy
New cow technologies promoted for the first time during World Dairy Expo
Utah-based Grōv Technologies recently announced that Cnossen Dairy of Hereford, Texas, has signed a definitive agreement to build a controlled environment feed center and grow fodder indoor year-round. The center will produce over 288,000 pounds of feed per day on less than 5% of the water used in conventional farming, according to the company. These savings will be critical in lessening the impact of drought conditions affecting Cnossen Dairy and many dairies in West Texas and across the western U.S.
The Cow Tech Report recently spoke with Cnossen Dairy owner Jim Cnossen about the announcement.
“Feed is our #1 expense,” Cnossen said. “If we can make it become more stable – take the highs and the lows out of the cost of it – that would be nice.”
The farm presently grows 60 to 70 percent of its own forage – corn silage, sorghum silage, triticale silage and wheat silage. Growing some of that forage on-farm, and with less water, is one of the things about the system that interests the dairy.
Cool stuff at World Dairy Expo 2021
Progressive Dairy magazine highlighted the coolest new ideas and new technology its editors found at last week’s World Dairy Expo. Several cow technologies, including smartphone apps, robotics, new activity monitors and motion-sensor cow soakers, were among the neatest things they saw.
Read the whole article here.
Robotic arm for cattle pharmaceutical delivery shows off proof of concept
U.S.-based Pharm Robotics recently posted a video on its LinkedIn page to show it now has a proof of concept for the idea its founders have been pitching for more than a year. (The company closed a crowd-funding round earlier this year.)
The company recently confirmed to The Cow Tech Report that the next stage of development is to install the proof of concept on founder Marinus Dijkstra’s farm in California for further testing.
See the proof of concept in action here.
Global brand tags 1 millionth cow with golden activity monitor
How do you celebrate tagging 1 million cows with activity monitors? Give that millionth cow some extra bling.
Merck Animal Health announced at World Dairy Expo the company recently delivered its one millionth activity tag to a dairy in Texas. The company presented the milestone tag – a golden-gilded neck monitor – to the dairy who owns her.
During the show the company also announced a new activity monitoring tag – one equipped with an LED indicator.
The new tag allows dairy managers, staff and veterinarians to quickly identify specific animals in need of attention at a glance – even in a large group. This minimizes disruptions and saves time and labor involved in searching for cows, according to the company.
The tag can flash in different intervals to indicate individual cow needs. For example, a producer could set up the device so that a slowly blinking light indicates a cow is ready to be bred and a tag that is blinking fast indicates she may need an animal health intervention.
The new tag is available now for pre-order and will be distributed in 2022.
Cattle management software announces crowdfunding round
International beef cattle management app Breedr recently posted on its LinkedIn page an intention to raise money soon via crowdfunding. The company says more than 1,000 farmers and more than 160,000 cattle are already registered users on their platform. They intend to use this latest round of funding to further scale their platform.
Learn more about the investment round here.
Cow locating technology heats up
Nedap-powered cow location was one of the new innovations promoted by several suppliers, including GEA, at World Dairy Expo. The technology tracks the company’s cow-adorned activity monitors in a barn and pinpoints within 10 feet the location of a cow in need of attention. Locator devices must be installed in barns to make the system capable of finding activity monitors.
Learn more about it here.
Profit projections from ZISK
Projected profitability for two dairy herd sizes have IMPROVED in profit projections from ZISK.
ZISK is a profit-projection smartphone app that tracks individual dairy farm profitability based on current CME board prices. Projections for a 1,000-cow dairy producing an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow and a 2,500-cow dairy producing an average of 85 pounds of milk per cow are provided.
12-month dairy farm profit projections (as of Oct. 7, 2021):
1,000-cow dairy = $386,830 (UP about $209,800 since the beginning of September)
2,500-cow dairy = $1.132 million (UP about $558,000 since the beginning of September)