Early Detection of Acidosis

David Tait, farmer from Northern Ireland, came across an unexpected benefit of the smaXtec system. It picked up on mild acidosis symptoms during the winter which enabled the Taits and their vets to promptly adjust the ration and prevent a clinical fallout.

“I was getting quite a lot of temperature alerts when the cows were housed, and we started feeding more meal during housing. Rumination was fine so we weren’t sure what was causing the temperature spike, but eventually, our vets carried out rumen synthesis which involve taking a sample of the rumen fluid to measure the pH. The results showed the cows were suffering with borderline sub-acute rumen acidosis,” describes David.

“We introduced a yeast and acid buff and cows increased in milk yield by three litres over the next week. Cows were probably on the edge of acidosis but without smaXtec we would not have picked it up because there were no obvious symptoms.”