IceRobotics ICEQUBE MOTION SENSOR User Manual CowAlert User Guide FCCx

User Guide

V.14 – Oct 2012 English (UK)

Information and Support Enquiries:

Email: support@cowalert.com

Tel: +44 131 541 2010

Contents

1

Introduction ....................................................................................................................................4

1.1

The origins of the IceQube and the CowAlert System............................................................4

1.2

Minimum System Requirements to view CowAlert................................................................5

2

Getting connected to CowAlert ......................................................................................................6

3

CowAlert Home Page ......................................................................................................................8

3.1

Navigation Bar Details (User profile and language selection) ................................................8

3.2

Navigation Bar Details.............................................................................................................9

3.3

Search for Cow or IceQube Numbers ...................................................................................10

4

Behaviour Graphs & Summary Information .................................................................................11

4.1

Behaviour graph: Hours view................................................................................................11

4.2

Behaviour Graph: Multi-day view.........................................................................................12

4.3

Behaviour Tables...................................................................................................................13

4.4

IceScore Mobility ..................................................................................................................14

4.5

Interpreting the graphs.........................................................................................................15

5

Heat Alerts ....................................................................................................................................16

5.1

Viewing recent heat alerts and their associated behaviour graphs .....................................16

5.2

Viewing all Heat alerts ..........................................................................................................17

5.3

Receiving Heat Alerts by email .............................................................................................17

6

Lying Behaviour.............................................................................................................................18

6.1

Lying behaviour for the individual cow.................................................................................18

6.2

Lying behaviour for the group or herd..................................................................................20

6.3

Lying behaviour graphs for an individual cow ......................................................................21

7

Managing Cows and IceQubes......................................................................................................22

7.1

Getting started – creating the initial association between Cows and IceQubes..................22

7.2

Generating a list of Cow numbers ........................................................................................22

7.3

Generating a list of IceQubes................................................................................................24

7.4

Attaching an IceQube to a Cow within CowAlert .................................................................25

7.5

Adding new cows to CowAlert..............................................................................................26

7.6

Detaching an IceQube from a cow number..........................................................................27

7.7

Deleting a Cow and its record from CowAlert ......................................................................28

8

Reports..........................................................................................................................................28

8.1

Lying Time .............................................................................................................................28

8.2

IceScore Mobility ..................................................................................................................30

8.3

IceScore Mobility Historic Performance ...............................................................................31

8.4

IceQube Population ..............................................................................................................31

9

Site Information ............................................................................................................................32

9.1

User Settings ............................................................................................................................32

10

Help and Support .....................................................................................................................33

11

Feedback..................................................................................................................................33

12

Attaching an IceQube to a cow’s leg........................................................................................34

13

Removing an IceQube from a cow’s leg...................................................................................35

1 Introduction

1.1 The origins of the IceQube and the CowAlert System

IceRobotics has been supplying animal science institutions worldwide with specialist behaviour

monitoring solutions since 2005. Its IceTag and IceQube sensors are used by leading livestock

researchers in over 20 countries to enable research into health, welfare and behaviour, principally in

dairy cattle. Research based on these sensors appears in highly regarded journals such as the Journal

of Dairy Science and the Journal of Applied Animal Behaviour Science. Recent published papers have

covered diverse themes including oestrus expression, lameness patterns, different bedding types,

hoof trimming methods and feed intake.

The IceQube was developed in 2008 from the proven IceTag platform to provide a sensor that is

suitable both for large-scale research and commercial farm applications. It was launched in 2010

after extensive field-trialling across many herds and sites. The IceTag and IceQube are designed to

be fully compatible with each other to ensure that ongoing research insights can be extended into

practical applications in commercial farming.

Both sensors use a 3-axis accelerometer, capturing precise data on the cow’s movements several

times per second, providing highly detailed activity and behaviour information. The CowAlert system

was developed to provide advanced management and analysis capability for the data generated by

the IceQube.

The system’s internet connectivity allows large amounts of data to be securely stored and

extensively analysed. Users can keep information over several generations of animals if they wish

and complex mathematical analysis and calculations can be performed which would not be possible

on older-generation stand-alone systems. Information from different sites can be compared or

combined and users can access the system from any location with an internet connection.

Information can therefore be shared remotely with third parties such as vets or feed advisors if

desired.

The IceQube’s excellent heat detection performance has been verified through a series of scientific

trials involving progesterone testing. With the IceTag established as the market leading choice of

dairy animal scientists, the award winning IceQube and CowAlert system is now being selected by

the most progressive dairy farmers.

CowAlert and IceQube are Registered Trade Marks of IceR

obotics Ltd

1.2 Minimum System Requirements to view CowAlert

Using your unique User ID and password you can access CowAlert from anywhere there is a reliable

internet connection and a modern web browser, whether that is the farm office or from the other

side of the world. There is no software to be installed and all updates are automated so the most

recent version will always be available. Accessing CowAlert through an internet broadband

connection is preferred as this provides good speed and reliability.

CowAlert can therefore be viewed on any internet-enabled device such as a PC, Mac, laptop or

tablet PC. It is suggested that equipment with a reasonable sized screen is used to ensure full benefit

from the advanced graphing capability.

Recommended web browsers include:

• Firefox version 4

• Google Chrome (this updates itself so the latest version should always be installed)

• Internet Explorer 8

• Safari for mobile devices

2 Getting connected to CowAlert

1. You should have a modern internet browser (such as Google Chrome, Firefox 4, Internet

Explorer 8 or Safari) installed on your PC or equivalent.

2. Ensure that you are connected to the internet

3. Open your internet browser

4. In the address bar, type this address and then press enter

www.cowalert.com

5. You should now see this login screen:

6. Click on Client login which will take you to the login page.

7. Enter your username and password and press Enter – this will take you to the Home Page of

the CowAlert system for your farm.

Your username and password are unique to you. Please do not share these details with others as

they will then be able to make changes that may affect your data and therefore the effective

functioning of the system. If however, you would like to authorise someone else to have access,

please email support@cowalert.com and a separate username and password can be issued for

each additional user.

If you forget your password or believe that it is no longer secure, please email

support@cowalert.com and a replacement will be issued.

TIP: Bookmark your CowAlert page, or set it up as your Home Page on your browser, so you can

access it quickly in the future

3 CowAlert Home Page

The Home Page allows you to access the different functions of the system – it is like a Table of

Contents to direct you to where you want to go in the system.

The functions are:

• Animal activity graphs

• Heat alerts

• Health alerts if you have subscribed to receive them

• Average herd lying times

• IceQube management functions

The illustration below provides an overview of the CowAlert front page.

3.1 Navigation Bar Details (User profile and language selection)

Navigation bar allows you to

access different features of

CowAlert

The number of cows

in

heat. Click on any

number takes you

directly to the detail

for that cow

(see section 4)

Average lying time of

the herd over 24 hours

The middle section shows

the download performance

and the latest downloads

and times.

Click on your farm name on any

page to come back to this front

page. It acts as a “Home” button.

Click here to logout from

the system and select your

language preference.

Users can logout from any

page.

Click this link to email

the heats summary to

someone. A pop up

window will appear

and you enter the

email address

IceScore Mobility. Average Mobility Score of the Herd,

plus indicator of the number of animals flagged as

green, amber and red. Poor mobility scores may

indicate lameness or another health problem.

measure of

a.user

The Dairy Farm

3.2 Navigation Bar Details

Separate sections will be covered in more detail below.

Click on orange button to open

up user profile options such as

language selection and to logout.

Other languages will be added as

they become available.

Heats: Accesses list of

heats

–

see section

5

Manage: Associating

cows with IceQubes,

removing attachments,

adding cows – see

section7

Help: Send an email to

support@icerobotics.com –

see section 13

Cow / IceQube: Search

directly by Cow or IceQube

number

Reports: Accesses lying time,

IceScore and IceQube reports

- see section 8

The Dairy Farm

Site: Accesses information

and settings – see section 9

3.3 Search for Cow or IceQube Numbers

Use the same process to search for an IceQube number, using the IceQube field.

Search by Cow: Entering a

number 1 shows all cows that

have the number 1 in cow

number

Adding a second digit, in this

case a 2, searches for the

number 12 and displays all cow

numbers with this number pair.

Select the cow you wish to view

and left mouse click to select,

or enter a cow number and

<enter>

4 Behaviour Graphs & Summary Information

The behaviour graph page is divided into a graph and several tables.

4.1 Behaviour graph: Hours view

The Hours activity graph provides more detailed information on the animal’s behaviour. This view is

particularly useful when looking at heat events or suspected health anomalies.

The Hours graph can be accessed either from:

• Selecting a heat event and clicking on the chart icon (see section 5)

• Selecting the Hours tab on the main cow activity screen

Behaviour

shows detailed

behaviour information for the

cow. See more in section 8.1

Select the time period (15 hours to

90 days) to view the data for that

period

Scroll back/forward in

time

Options to print and

export the graph

Standing/lying time

is denoted by the

yellow line. Here the

cow is standing.

The pink line shows the

MotionIndex. This is a measure

of how active the animal is.

Note the raised activity level

during oestrus.

The blue line shows the Step

Count. Note that the

MotionIndex is a more accurate

measure of activity.

Clicking on any of these

headings hides/shows them on

the graph

The blue triangle shows when

the IceQube downloaded.

The Hours view is fixed width.

Data will progressively fill the

window.

4.2 Behaviour Graph: Multi-day view

An example of a 30 day activity graph is shown below. The activity graphs include the following

information:

• MotionIndex – how active the animal has been (thick pink line)

• MotionIndex 7 day average (thin pink line)

• Lying/standing (thick grey line)

• Lying time 7 day average (thin grey line)

• Steps (thick blue line)

• Steps 7 day average (thin blue line)

• IceScore

Click on any of these headings to show or hide

that feature on the graph

Lying time (highe

r

values indicate

that the cow is

lying for longer)

MotionIndex

IceScore: Numbers above 2

denote a potential health

problem

Lying time

average. Note

that this is very

consistent for this

cow.

4.3 Behaviour Tables

Several tables are shown on the screen along with the behaviour graph.

The Events Table provides a list of the dates of previous Heats.

The IceQube Attachments table provides details on when IceQubes were attached and removed

from the cow, and the associated IceQube numbers.

The Summary Information Table provides summary information for the current day, the average of

the last 7 days and the average of the last 14 days

Summary information on the cow, including optional Group

allocation and Eartag number. The table shows the number

of the IceQube that is currently attached, when the

IceQube last downloaded, and when the last heat event

occurred.

Delete a cow by clicking here . Note that this will remove the

animal from the cow list along with all its data. The data can not

be recovered, so this function should be used with caution.

Click on

Edit

to edit the

Cow Number, Group or

Eartag fields. Use Cancel

to exit without saving.

4.4 IceScore Mobility

IceScore is an optional paid-for subscription service subject to a free trial period during its validation

phase. It provides an alert for animals that exhibit a change in mobility that is likely to be related to

some sort of health issue such as lameness or mastitis.

The example below shows an IceScore trace for a cow that was confirmed to have gone lame.

See also section 8.2 for further information on IceScore Mobility.

Dairyman reported

problem here, 2 or 3

days into the problem

IceScore identified a mobility issue

4.5 Interpreting the graphs

To assist in identifying unusual behaviour patterns it is useful to know the expected range of

“normal” behaviours.

Whilst this can vary between farms, the table below shows the typical ranges for Motion Index,

Step Count and Lying Time.

Behaviour Measure Indoor Grazing

Motion Index 5000-10000 10000+ (can be as high as

30000, 40000 depending on

how far cows have to walk to

pasture)

Step Count 1000-3000 (generally around

1/4 of the Motion Index)

3000-10000

Lying time 8-16 hours. Note that scientific

experts recommend that dairy

cows should lie for 12 hours per

day

1

Low herd or individual lying

times could be an indicator of

several factors including illness

or cow comfort issues.

8-16 hours (often higher

outdoors than indoors)

1

Jensen, M.B., L.J. Pedersen, and L. Munksgaard. 2005. The effect of reward duration on demand functions

for rest in dairy heifers and lying requirements as measured by demand functions. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.

90:207-217

5 Heat Alerts

5.1 Viewing recent heat alerts and their associated behaviour graphs

Heat alerts are shown in the left-hand table on the farm homepage.

Clicking the chart icon opens

the Hours behaviour graph so

the user can view the activity

around the Heat

This column gives the

time the heat started.

The search box below

it also allows further

refinement. Click

column header to

order by date /time

This is the

recommended AI

window and is set by

the farm by selecting

Site from the main

menu bar, and then

Settings (see section

9.1)

Click the cow

number to show

activity graphs

for this animal

Click on any row to open the

details of the highlighted alerts

Click to open

drop-down

menu to select

different

search criteria

Use the Ignore button to cancel

the Heat alert (eg if caused by a

known event). Use the Info

button to view further details

and to reinstate an alert (eg if

Ignored by accident)

5.2 Viewing all Heat alerts

A list of all cows and Heat alerts can be accessed by selecting Heats from the top menu bar.

5.3 Receiving Heat Alerts by email

In addition to viewing heat alerts at any time via CowAlert, automated email messages can be sent

to specific email addresses.

To set up automated email alerts, email support@cowalert.com with the following information:

• Farm name

• Name and email address of the person/people to receive email alerts

• When the email alert should be received, eg once a day, sent at 3pm, or twice a day, sent at

6am and 6pm.

The email that is sent will include heat alerts generated within the last 72 hours and will look like the

example below. Note that clicking on the cow number will show the relevant activity graph.

The table can be sorted Cow or Heat Start by

clicking on the appropriate column heading

Note that the cows within a current AI time

window are highlighted in yellow. See section

9.1 on how to set the AI window.

6 Lying Behaviour

6.1 Lying behaviour for the individual cow

For the individual cow, CowAlert provides:

• Cow-level: Graphical overview of lying time and average lying time (Activity graphs)

• Cow-level: Total Lying time per day, and as a 7 and 14 day average (table located below

activity graph for the specific cow) and as a graphical view (Behaviour view option on

Activity graph)

• Cow-level: Number of lying bouts each day. A lying bout is when a cow changes from

standing to lying to standing. (table located below activity graph for the specific cow)

• Herd-level: average number of hours the herd is lying.

• Typically she will have a very similar number of bouts each day and any change to that may

indicate a potential problem.

Below is an example of an Hours graph, showing only the MotionIndex and the lying/standing

patterns. Note the increased activity and increased standing time associated with the Heat event.

The steps and downloads are hidden by deselecting them in the key.

Hours graph with

Steps and Downloads

hidden from view by

clicking on those

headings

Below is an example of a 90 day graph showing only the lying time plus 7 day average lying time.

Hiding the Steps and MotionIndex from

view clearly shows the lying pattern and

lying time trend of this animal.

IceRobotics ICEQUBE MOTION SENSOR User Manual CowAlert User Guide FCCx

IceRobotics Limited MOTION SENSOR CowAlert User Guide FCCx

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