Afimilk Cow Monitoring and Herd Management
Collars, pedometers and milk meters that watch every cow individually — supplied, fitted and serviced by McCaskie engineers.
The Cow Tells You First, If Something Is Listening
A cow that is bulling, or going off her feed, or starting with a quarter, changes her behaviour before anybody in the parlour notices.
That is the whole argument for cow monitoring, and it is not a technology argument. It is a labour one. Heat detection by eye depends on somebody having the time to stand and watch, at the hour the cow happens to show, on the day she happens to show it. Sensors do not get busy, and they do not go on holiday in July.
The same is true of the quiet problems. Rumination falling away, less time at the feed face, a shift in conductivity at one quarter — none of these is a diagnosis, and none of them replaces your vet. They are early warnings, which is precisely what you do not get from a cow who looks fine until she does not.
What Each Sensor Watches
Afimilk build the hardware around one idea: measure the individual animal, not the group average. These are their systems, described as they describe them.
AfiCollar
A neck collar reading rumination, eating behaviour, heat and feed efficiency. The collar is the choice where what the cow is eating and chewing matters as much as when she is bulling.
AfiAct III
A leg pedometer tracking heat, calving, rest and welfare indicators. Leg movement is a blunter signal than rumination but a very honest one — a cow in heat walks.
Afimilk MPC and milk meter
Measures milk flow, yield, conductivity and parlour performance at every milking. This is the one that tells you about the parlour as well as about the cow.
AfiLab
Analyses milk components during the milking itself, so the composition of an individual cow's milk is known at the point she gives it rather than weeks later.
AfiSort and AfiWeigh
Identifies, weighs and sorts animals automatically against criteria you set — drafting without standing at a gate.
AfiFarm
The herd management software the sensors report into. Afimilk call it the heart of the system, and they are right in the sense that matters: hardware without somewhere to put the data is just hardware.
You do not need all of it. Most farms start with the one problem that is costing them — usually heat detection — and add to it. We would rather quote what you need than what is on the price list.
Numbers You Can Act On Before Milking Ends
AfiFarm takes what the sensors on the cows and in the parlour record and turns it into a list of animals to look at.
That is the practical test of any herd management system and it is worth applying to this one before you buy it: does it hand somebody a job at the start of the day, or does it hand them a dashboard? Heat lists, cows to check, animals to draft, parlour performance by unit and by milking — those are jobs. The rest is reporting, and reporting is only worth what you do with it.
The other half of the answer is who is standing behind it when a sensor stops reporting at half past five on a Sunday. On a Scottish farm that is us, not a helpdesk in another country.
Already Milking With a Merlin?
Then a good part of this is already happening, and we would rather tell you that before you spend money on it.
A robot is a measuring device that happens to milk. It is already weighing the milk, watching each quarter and recording what every cow does at every visit, so a farm with Merlins does not usually need a second set of sensors doing the same job. Where Afimilk earns its place on a robot farm is the ground the robot does not cover — the dry cows, the youngstock, the heifers not yet through the box.
Cow monitoring is at its strongest on a conventional parlour, where nothing else is watching the individual animal between milkings. That is where we fit most of it, and it retrofits to a parlour you already have rather than requiring a new one.
Quoted, Fitted and Serviced by Us
Afimilk and Fullwood work together internationally. In Scotland that reaches your farm through McCaskie — we sell it, we fit it, and we are the ones who come back to it.
On the farm first
A rep or an engineer comes and looks at the parlour, the shed and the way you are working before anybody quotes a collar. What suits a year-round calving herd is not what suits a block calver.
Fitted by our own engineers
Eight engineers, working from Springkerse in Stirling and a second service centre at Ayr. The people who install it are the people who service it.
Supported around the clock
Covered by the same twenty-four hour, seven day call-out as every other machine we install. Out of hours the call goes to the technician on call, not to an answering service.
To ask about any of it, or to book a visit, there are two doors:
Ring Stirling
01786 474 481. The engineering office at Springkerse, Stirling. Ask about a machine, book a site visit, or order a part.
Email service
service@mccaskie.co.uk. For anything that can wait for a reply: a quote, a service booking, a question about something we fitted.
How the out-of-hours call-out works, and who answers, is on service and call-out.
Cow Monitoring Questions
What does Afimilk actually do?
Afimilk make sensors that monitor individual dairy cows and the herd management software those sensors report into. Collars read rumination, eating and heat; leg pedometers read heat, calving and rest; milk meters read yield, flow and conductivity at every milking. It all lands in AfiFarm, which turns it into a list of cows to look at.
Can I fit cow monitoring to the parlour I already have?
Yes. That is where most of it goes. Cow monitoring retrofits to an existing parlour and does not need a new one, which makes it one of the few real upgrades available to a farm that is not ready to replace its milking plant. McCaskie quote, fit and service it.
How do I know when a cow is bulling?
That is the job most farms buy monitoring for. A cow in heat moves more, ruminates less and behaves differently from her own normal — not from the herd's average, from her own. A collar or a leg tag picks that up at three in the morning as readily as at three in the afternoon, and puts her on a heat list rather than leaving her to be spotted.
What is the difference between a collar and a leg tag?
A collar sits on the neck and reads rumination and eating as well as activity, so it tells you about feeding and health as well as heat. A leg pedometer reads movement, and reads it well — heat, calving and rest. If heat detection is the whole problem, the leg tag answers it. If you also want to know how the ration is going down, the collar does more.
Will it tell me a cow is about to calve?
The AfiAct III pedometer tracks calving among its indicators. Treat it as an early warning rather than a stopwatch: it tells you which cow to go and look at, which is the useful part.
Do I need this if I already have a robot?
Usually not for the milking herd. A Merlin is already weighing milk, watching each quarter and recording every visit, so a second set of sensors would largely duplicate it. Where monitoring still earns its keep on a robot farm is the stock the robot never sees — dry cows, in-calf heifers and youngstock. We would rather say that than sell you the same data twice.
Who installs and services Afimilk in Scotland?
McCaskie. We sell it, fit it and service it from our engineering base at Springkerse in Stirling, with a second service centre at Ayr and eight engineers between them. Call-out runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Is this a replacement for the vet?
No, and anyone selling it that way is overselling it. Rumination, activity and conductivity are early warnings that tell you which animal to go and look at. What is wrong with her, and what to do about it, is a conversation with your vet.