There has been a significant uptake of breeding technology over the past couple of years, but what are the actual benefits?
In 2025 alone, 1,060 farms applied for TAMS support to purchase health and fertility monitoring equipment such as collars, tags and dosers.
Technology has advanced to a point where heat is detected before the sharpest growers can detect it.
This is crucial in the modern age of agriculture, with tighter parturition as well as a higher use of sexed semen, which must be used within a tighter window than conventionally.
In addition, most breeding techniques have advanced to the point where they no longer recognize temperature alone. Alternatively, it can alert farmers about health issues, diet, mineral issues and more.
The technology typically measures a range of behaviors, including side lying, low activity, moderate activity, high activity, eating, rumination, walking, grazing, heavy breathing/panting, and general abnormal behavior.
It then sends alerts to your phone or laptop if it notices any irregularities or thermal activity, helping save on lost temperatures, poor convection rates, and treatment costs.
research
Teagasc recently published the results of a study conducted on 19 herds in 2022 and 2023, in which SenseHub breeding technology was used to determine estrus in cows after calving.
The research found that cows show their first estrus on average 34 days after calving.
25% of them were early (less than 21 days), 51% of them were between 22-42 days, and the last 24% were late (after 42 days).
In addition, the research found that cows that had at least one estrus before the first insemination had pregnancy rates of 57%, compared to those that did not have estrus which achieved pregnancy rates of only 47%.
The length of the natural cycle also had an effect on fertility, with taller or shorter cows having lower pregnancy rates.
Educational technology
Research has shown how complex the estrus process is, and how easy it is to misjudge the timing.
However, breeding technology can help determine the timing of estrus and abnormalities such as delayed estrus and irregular cycles.
This can help improve reproductive efficiency through precisely timed insemination, well-designed synchronization programs, and cow culling strategies for estrus cows.
Considering the absorption of semen, and how sexed straws can cost up to €50 a straw, the precision of the breeding technology was considered a “promising strategy” by the researchers.
Sex-sorted semen is a manipulated product, as the sperm cells are damaged during the sorting process, which means that the viability of sex-sorted sperm cells in the reproductive tract is shorter (less than 12 hours) than conventional (more than 24 hours).
We have therefore seen a relationship between sexual semen uptake and uptake of breeding technology, as accurate heat detection is needed to ensure the cow is inseminated within 14-20 hours of the onset of heat.
If you’re thinking about investing in collars this season, talk to your local dairy consultant to find out which system will work best for your herd.
The consultant will also help you apply for TAMS for collars, where the reference cost for the base station is €2,833 and the reference cost for collars is €134.70.
