A method of using wireless monitoring boluses in commercial dairy cows

Monitoring the dairy cow by wireless means opens new possibilities to improve feed
efficiency of dairy cows. A high yielding dairy cow is always at risk of acidosis as she eats 3-4 tonnes of purchased feed per year to balance the 10-12 tonnes of farm produced feed (grass and silage). Managing these olympic athletes of cows is difficult, as silage and grass quality are changing constantly. Failure to manage cows well leads to acidosis both acute where stomach intubation is sometimes necessary to revive the rumen and sub acute rumen acidosis
(SARA) which affects the majority of high yielding cows with reduced milk yield, lower
fertility and increased lameness. Providing the farmer with a monitoring service based on knowledge rather than guesswork will reduce losses to the farmer and improve cow health and welfare. The farmer will benefit from this service with increased milk output af 5% on £2000 income = £100 extra per cow, veterinary interventions will be reduced by £10 per cow and compound feed bills reduced by 5% of 3 tonnes of concentrate at £200/tonne = £30, giving the farmer a net benefit of up to £140 per cow per year.
The business opportunity for eCow is to increase the market for wireless boluses from a few hundred a year world wide to hundreds of thousands by selling boluses through veterinary practices and nutritional agencies to farmers. This will happen if we create a system that accurately reports rumen pH on a routine basis in commercial dairy cows.