Josef Bufler

On his family farm in the Lower Allgäu region, Josef Bufler keeps 130 dairy cows that achieve an average milk yield of over 11,000 litres per year. In the newly built free-stall barn, the health monitoring of the dairy cows with smaXtec, alongside a milking robot and a feed pusher, completes the modern barn technology: “In my daily workflow, smaXtec supports me so much that I no longer want to do without it.“

What was particularly convincing was the broad functionality of smaXtec, which goes beyond mere heat detection: “The great advantage of smaXtec is the complete health monitoring, which includes temperature, rumination activity, calving alerts, and even a reduction in water intake – all of this is covered by the smaXtec system,“ explains the farmer. smaXtec has already become an integral part of his daily routine: “I check the alerts first thing in the morning to see if there are any heats or upcoming calvings, and then I can direct these animals into the selection. During the day, I can also monitor the temperature curves with the smaXtec system and act quickly if fever persists – especially if rumination activity decreases as well.“

Thanks to the precise temperature measurement, Josef Bufler fully trusts smaXtec for disease detection: “Mastitis usually occurs in connection with fever, and with smaXtec, we detect the fever 12 hours before anything is visible on the udder. This allows me to perform a CMT in time and, thanks to early detection, I can increasingly rely on alternative treatments like herbal boluses or anti-inflammatory drugs. This also helps me save on some veterinary visits,“ he describes the effective health monitoring.

Especially for heat detection and calving alerts, the precise recognition by the smaXtec system is paying off for the farmer: “Just yesterday, I received four heat alerts – I saw two of them myself, but I wouldn’t have noticed the other two without the system. We inseminated all four animals, and smaXtec regularly imports the insemination data from LKV and synchronises all the data.“ The cows and calves also benefit, as early detection provides more time to make preparations: “For calving, the system detects the dropping temperature 15 to 20 hours in advance and sends us an alert. This ensures that the cow calves in the straw area and not in the dry cow barn. Around calving, monitoring rumination activity is particularly valuable. I can immediately see if a cow isn’t getting going with her rumination activity, and I can react early, for example, with a glucose infusion. After that, I can track if the treatment is successful and the curve goes back up.“

“smaXtec keeps an eye on my cows around the clock, and that really helps me move forward,“ summarises Josef Bufler. “Even though the levers in agriculture are getting smaller, we always want to improve – so my farm philosophy is: First better, then bigger. With smaXtec, we are on the best path to achieving that.“