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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1980-06-04, Page 59The-Fo, m Edition, Week of June 4, 1980 — 11 Comp uters help with dairy cattle breeding A University of Guelph scientist is putting computer technology to work in the dairy herd to help producers detect the best time to breed a cow. By electronically monitor- ing the cow's physical activ- ity, Dr. Frank Hurnik, an animal behavioral scientist, hopes to pinpoint the time of estrus (heat). "An accurate method of detecting estrus could mean substantial savings to the dairy industry," says Dr. Hurnik. "It is important to breed the cows as soon after calving as possible because longer.. calving intervals ex- tend the low milk production phase of the cow's cycle. Producers can lose about 51.60 per cow for each day conception is delayed past 80 daysafter calving." Through previous studies using video television camer- as, Dr. Hurnik and his team learned that cows become more, active as they come into heat. This initial reA earth showed that cows in hc.t rest less, eat less and generally are more physically active than other cows. The next step in the re- search was to develop some method of measuring the physical activity, and identi- fying which cows were in heat. With the help of a • Guelph electronics hobbyist, Carl Derksen, an electronic transmitter was developed. • The - small • transmitter, which hangs around the cow's neck on a rope neck- lace, sends signals to a multi- channel receiver every time the cow moves. The physical activity of each cow is count- ed and recorded -- the higher the count, the more active the cow. Research results in higher corn yield To most farmers, the only difference between growing grain cornand whole plant silage is the time of harvest. But University of Guelph re- searchers have found that treating the silage crop dif- , .1=e Ake . grain :et% . can result in significant yield increases. "Silage corn is a very important crop in Ontario," says Dr. Bruce Hunter, crop scientist. "Last year, Ontario farmers planted 328,000 hec- tares (810,000 acres) of sil- age corn,making it the third largest crop in the province, next to grain corn and hay." Because of the crop's significance, scientists decid- ed to study the differences between grain ° corn and silage corn. The purpose of the project, which began four years ago, is to develop production recommendations for growing silage corn. This. research is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agricul- ture and Food. Dr. Hunter says the pro- ject has examined five pro - _444 practices to. -deter., mine if the same practices are suitable for both grain corn and whole plant silage production. The factors in- volved are planting density, maturity at harvest, hybrids, planting dates, and nitrogen requirements. "Our early tests show that silage corn yields can be improved by increasing the planting density," he says. "whole plant silage is harv- ested in mid-September be- fore the grain crop, so there's not much trouble with the plants lodging (fall- ing over) before harvest. We have found we can plant 12,000 more plants per hect- are (5000 plants per acre) in the silage crop, than we can in the grain crop." The maturity pattern of the silage also allows a wider -,choiee of •comphybrids. For example, if a farmer normal- ly planted a 2600 heat unit hybrid for grain, he could select one with up to 200 heat units higher for a silage crop and still get the corn to the proper stage of maturity for silage. Another part of the project found that late planting (after mid-May) reduced both grain .corn and silage corn yields, but the reduction was greatest for the grain corn. "If farmers can't get all of their corn planted on time, they could reduce their loss- es by planting the silage corn last," says Dr. Hunter: At the Elora Research Sta- tion, near Guelph, tests are continuing this summer to determine whether the in- creased ,,.plat• densities—for., silage need more nitrogen than the conventional plant- ing densities. Researchers also plan to evaluate corn hybrids to identify which ones are best suited to whole plant silage production. Everyone BeneFits... "In our first study with the transmitters, we monitored the activity of cows at the Elora Dairy Research Sta- tion, near Guelph," says Dr. Hurnik. "Graduate student Earl Pollock and I concluded that the device had merit, but it would require modifi- cation to make it useful in a commercial dairy opera- tion." A microcomputer and printout unit were added to the receiver to allow scien- tists to record automatically the activity information ab- out the different cows.. The information is recorded and printed out so the system requires very little labour time, The computer can be programmed to record cows' activities for various , inter- vals. The modified equipment is nowbeing Neste. at_ the farm. of Bob and Tom Jefferson, k... R. 2 Guelph. Half of th4 64 cows in a free -stall barn are being bred based on the electronic estrus detection system. Dr. Hurnik and graduate student Noreen Lewandrowski plan to collect data in order to_compare the reproductive performance of the animals bred after elec- tronic estrus detection with the cows bred after conven- tional signs of estrus are observed. Dr. Hurnik believes the el- ectronic estrus detector holds promise as a method of improving the accuracy of heat detection, but there are many other potential uses for the equipment. "This equipment could also be used for many other types of behaviour and man- agement studies," -.says-Dr. Hurnik. 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