u/Resident-Rub5624

First time posting here, don't really do the forum thing much, but figured I'd ask people who'd actually know.

350 head, free-stall, robotic milkers, Upper Midwest. Just running the basic robot software, never bothered with a full herd management system.

Been catching lameness too late lately, usually not till a cow's already off and I'm calling the trimmer. Conception's been kind of rough too, though I know summer heat stress plays into that every year, just not sure how much of it is actually us missing heats versus that.

Looked at collars (Nedap, Allflex) but tagging 350 cows plus subscription is a lot to commit to blind. Ruled out bolus systems too, not sticking something in every cow.

Now looking at the camera stuff, GEA, Herd-i and so on. Like the idea of no hardware on the animal, but want to hear from guys actually running it before I call anybody.

Does the lameness scoring actually hold up against what your vet or trimmer would call it? And heat detection specifically, seems like a camera would miss standing heat if a cow's lying down or off in a corner. Anyone had luck with that, or still not there yet compared to a collar?

What kind of info does the system actually spit out day to day, and is any of it stuff you use, or is most of it noise you end up ignoring?

Also what'd you pay once install was done, and is there an actual person to call if something breaks?

First time posting here, don't really do the forum thing much, but figured I'd ask people who'd actually know.

350 head, free-stall, robotic milkers, Upper Midwest. Just running the basic robot software, never bothered with a full herd management system.

Been catching lameness too late lately, usually not till a cow's already off and I'm calling the trimmer. Conception's been kind of rough too, though I know summer heat stress plays into that every year, just not sure how much of it is actually us missing heats versus that.

Looked at collars (Nedap, Allflex) but tagging 350 cows plus subscription is a lot to commit to blind. Ruled out bolus systems too, not sticking something in every cow.

Now looking at the camera stuff, GEA, Herd-i and so on. Like the idea of no hardware on the animal, but want to hear from guys actually running it before I call anybody.

Does the lameness scoring actually hold up against what your vet or trimmer would call it? And heat detection specifically, seems like a camera would miss standing heat if a cow's lying down or off in a corner. Anyone had luck with that, or still not there yet compared to a collar?

What kind of info does the system actually spit out day to day, and is any of it stuff you use, or is most of it noise you end up ignoring?

Also what'd you pay once install was done, and is there an actual person to call if something breaks?

First time posting here, don't really do the forum thing much, but figured I'd ask people who'd actually know.

350 head, free-stall, robotic milkers, Upper Midwest. Just running the basic robot software, never bothered with a full herd management system.

Been catching lameness too late lately, usually not till a cow's already off and I'm calling the trimmer. Conception's been kind of rough too, though I know summer heat stress plays into that every year, just not sure how much of it is actually us missing heats versus that.

Looked at collars (Nedap, Allflex) but tagging 350 cows plus subscription is a lot to commit to blind. Ruled out bolus systems too, not sticking something in every cow.

Now looking at the camera stuff, GEA, Herd-i and so on. Like the idea of no hardware on the animal, but want to hear from guys actually running it before I call anybody.

Does the lameness scoring actually hold up against what your vet or trimmer would call it? And heat detection specifically, seems like a camera would miss standing heat if a cow's lying down or off in a corner. Anyone had luck with that, or still not there yet compared to a collar?

What kind of info does the system actually spit out day to day, and is any of it stuff you use, or is most of it noise you end up ignoring?

Also what'd you pay once install was done, and is there an actual person to call if something breaks?