Ear tags monitor cattle health

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Cattlemen now have the ability to monitor their cattle with an app on their phone and a new ear tag from Merck Animal Health.

The SenseHub Beef tags were launched during the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Trade Show.

“This technology is from our new division Merck Animal Health Intelligence,” said Sara Benson with Merck Animal Health. “The ear tags read body temperature and locomotion to help monitor the cattle health when they’re on pasture or in the feedlot.”

The SenseHub tags continuously monitor the cattle.

“The information is fed to an app on your phone so you know which cattle need attention first,” explained Benson from the Merck booth at the trade show during the Illinois Beef Expo. “The tag monitors the cattle 24/7 versus having someone walk the pens twice a day for 10 minutes.”

“Cattle only have so much lung capacity so if we can get treatment into them two days earlier, that can save that much more lung capacity to be a productive animal,” she said. “When an animal needs attention, there is a blinking light on the tag.”

The SenseHub tag also provides heat detection.

“It shows when the cows are in heat, what stage of heat they are in and the best time to breed them,” Benson said. “You can set it up to produce a report at any time of all your pens.”

Some feedlot operations are putting SenseHub tags in their cattle because they can’t find enough people to work at their operations.

“And to train the labor to identify sick cattle takes time and it’s not easy to do,” Benson said.

“Cattle are prey animals so they’re very good at trying to hide if they are sick, especially if you don’t have a level of stockmanship where they will display it for you,” she said. “I think we’ll see more of these tags get adopted by cattlemen.”

Whisper on Arrival is another tool feedlot operators can use to evaluate cattle when they arrive at a feedlot to determine if they are likely to respond to antimicrobial therapy for Bovine Respiratory Disease control.

“The wand has six stethoscope readers that measures four pieces of data — heart sound, lung sound, rectal temperature and body weight,” Benson said. “It lung scores cattle to tell you whether they need to be treated or not based off what they hear on the lungs.”

A southern Illinois cattleman told Benson that Whisper on Arrival is saving him $10 per head on antibiotic costs.

“That’s pretty substantial to not treat cattle that don’t need it,” she said.

At the Pike Feeds booth, Matt Greger and Adam Fritz provided information about the company’s ability to custom mix products at their feed mill located neat Pittsfield.

“My dad, Mark, started this business and we celebrated 30 years last year,” Matt Greger said. “We work with all types of livestock producers in Illinois and Missouri.”

The mill delivers feed to livestock producers in a 150- to 200-mile radius.

“We do custom formulas, show feeds and feedlot balancers,” Greger said. “We work with every operation no matter the size and we offer bag feed to bulk feed.”

Pike Feeds operates five tandem trucks and two auger trucks to deliver products to customers.

“We provide old-school customer service, so if you call the mill today, you’re going to talk to my dad,” Greger said.

From now until June, Pike Feeds is offering a spring mineral promotion.

“For every 10 bags, you get one free,” Greger said. “With minerals costing $24 to $36 per bag, that’s a 10% savings.”

Lance Ellsworth, co-founder and co-owner of Cattle Visions, was at the expo to help cattlemen make easier breeding decisions.

“We are a semen marketing company, we also train people how to artificially inseminate and we have a barn for collecting bull semen,” he said.

“We provide the most popular and productive bulls available to give cattlemen a successful calf crop they can market in the future,” said Ellsworth about his company that is celebrating 20 years in business this year.

Cattle Visions strives to provide the most beneficial lineup of bulls to meet the needs of cattlemen.

“Some guys look at carcass traits, others are focused on growth traits,” Ellsworth said. “We offer all beef breeds and there are about 2,000 bulls to choose from.”

Illinois is a popular state for the company.

“Our goal has always been to have customers happy with the end product,” Ellsworth said.

For more information about these companies, go to www.merck-animal-health.com, www.pikefeedsinc.com and www.cattlevisions.com.