How cow collars saved 150 hours of labour in breeding season

Investment in heat detection technology will be recouped within 2.3 years by cost savings on labour and sweeper bulls, a study on a Welsh dairy farm has found.

Father and son Tomos and Ifan Ifans milk 400 autumn-calving cows at Tyddyn Cae, near Pwllheli, and recently established a second herd of 200 spring calvers on a nearby holding.

See also: Why heat detection collars save time in an autumn-block herd

That expansion has added pressure on labour at breeding, as Ifan is solely responsible for observing heats. Visual checks were already time consuming, and that pressure is set to increase with two herds to manage.

“The tie of checking two blocks would have been too much of a burden on my time,” says Ifan.

Goal to protect tight calving block

Cow fertility has been a key area of focus in recent years and has resulted in the calving block reducing from 12 weeks to nine.

Rather than risk letting that progress slip, the Ifanses trialled heat detection collars as part of their project work as a Farming Connect Our Farms network farm, to explore a potential solution.

In 2025, a base station was installed and 400 SenseHub-Allflex cow collars fitted ahead of the autumn breeding season, at a cost of £40,868.

Each cow’s details and collar identification number were uploaded to SenseHub software.

The information captured is sent at regular intervals throughout the day via antenna to the farm computer or smartphone.

When peaks in cow activity and dropped rumination are met, this indicates a cow is bulling.

Labour and sweeper bull savings

Heat detection is now as simple as checking the computer for alerts and holding back cows listed for checking and insemination, says Ifan.

“It tells us everything that is going on with the cows 24 hours a day.”

Technology has made the system more efficient, he adds. “I no longer need to monitor heat detection visually – the technology is doing the work for us, and that frees up my time to get other work done [with the new spring-calving herd].”

The study calculated labour savings worth £3,675 during the breeding period: 147 hours costed at £25/hour for the pre-mating and mating periods.

The collars mean sweeper bulls are no longer needed, as artificial insemination (AI) can now be used throughout the breeding period.

Ifan Ifans’ dairy herd © Farming Connect

Until 2025, three Hereford bulls were purchased annually at a cost of about £2,500 a head, bringing the numbers kept as sweepers to eight.

Removing bulls from the system resulted in a £14,060 saving, which includes a maintenance cost of £2.25 a head a day.

AI costs increased by £800 because an extra 100 semen straws were purchased at £8 each.

Safer working environment

Another positive from having no bulls on the farm is that it creates a safer environment and reduced cattle handling, says Ifan.

“Bulls can be dangerous and difficult to handle and, by using AI beef bulls, calf quality will be better, and we can select sires with the traits we want.”

Sweeper bulls are not ideal for an autumn block either, he adds.

“We found that when they were serving autumn calvers in the shed, we would have trouble with foot health.

Running bulls in a field is one thing, but it is hard on them when they are on concrete.”

Fertility KPIs maintained

Tomas and Ifan were not targeting fertility improvements in the herd, as they already had a tight calving block.

Although collars can contribute to improved fertility KPIs, the study showed previous performance was maintained.

In 2024, when visual checks were used for heat detection, conception rate was exceptional, at 92%; in 2025, it was 81%. After the collars were fitted in 2026, that rate was 84%.

Ifan has since switched the collars to the spring calvers.

“It is a bit of a faff to swap them around, but we have done it for now to get us started.

“We will probably get dedicated collars for the spring herd too, because they are saving a fair bit of work and doing a good job,” he reckons.

Ifan Ifans and Osian Hughes © Farming Connect

Osian Hughes, Farming Connect dairy officer for North Wales, who oversaw the trial, says the collars had been proven to simplify the breeding period, with labour employed more efficiently.

“This can also provide lifestyle benefits for a farmer in not having to carry out physical checks after normal work hours, in an industry that already demands long working hours,” he notes.

Payback in two years

The technology can potentially offer benefits over and above fertility: for cow health and welfare monitoring, record-keeping and optimising cow performance and farm efficiency.

While the collars did not contribute to any apparent improvement in fertility KPIs at Tyddyn Cae, the savings in labour and sweeper bulls mean the cost of the collars will be covered in just over two years, says Osian.

In Wales, farmers can get support from farm business advisers through the Farming Connect Advisory Service to assess the value of investing in this technology, he adds.