Unfortunately, not all farms have had ideal experiences with sort gates over the years. Factors like inaccurate sorting or troublesome gate operation soured the potential of this technology in some cases. However, past sort gate experience does not have to be an indicator of future success with this technology. Keep these factors in mind to maximize sort gate benefits for your dairy.
Determine the value of sort gates
Whether you are considering (or reconsidering) installing sort gates or looking to improve efficiency with your current setup, how do you factor the return on investment?
It comes down to herd size and how many cows you are trying to manage per person. Every dairy has an equation for how many labor hours are required to care for animals. If your protocols are performed without technology, that can tend to require a larger amount of labor hours. On the contrary, if you are performing a task with technology and data is accurate and data capture is efficient, you can significantly reduce task time allotments.
Since labor availability is a challenge for many U.S. dairy farms, if you can effectively care for a greater number of animals with fewer human labor hours, the technology will pay for itself quickly. In addition to your return on investment, sort gate technology adds value by letting cows exhibit their natural behaviors with easy cow flow and gives them more time on feed by not retracing their steps post-milking. Also, sort gates provide one more opportunity to move from a group management philosophy to an individual management perspective. Instead of managing by exception, you are now managing the individual cow or individual challenge.
Optimize sort gate hardware and design flow
Sort gates read a cow’s electronic identification tag (ID) and direct cows depending on whether a specific preset parameter is met. Sorting action may be triggered by factors such as milk yield, reproductive protocols, health challenges or another reason.
For gate hardware to work well, bushings and gates should move freely. Make sure components are not loud and clanking, startling animals and creating an environment of fear. Typically, gates feature air-powered components to create quiet functionality.
Cows remember a pleasant sort gate experience, helping to make animal movement seamless. If the experience is less than ideal and the gate hits a cow’s hips the first day, for example, it is more likely she will be reluctant to maneuver through the sorting lane.
The key is to create easy and consistent cow flow through sort gates.
Cow flow depends on sorting gate and lane design. For instance, the sort area needs to be open and inviting. Sort pens should be appropriately sized so they do not overflow with cows and create backups in the sorting lane. The best way for gate automation to work is to ensure a consistent and predictable flow of animals today, tomorrow and the next day. The same speed and cow flow all day, every day offers the sort gate a much better chance to learn and adapt to cows and cut the right animals at the right time. That consistency creates more saved time for your team and less stress on cows.
Plan for these considerations during facility design, whether changing gate placement in your current setup or keeping automation in mind when designing a new facility.
Consider software and ID function
Accurate data collection is the lynchpin for an optimized sort gate and vital to software performance and ID function. If you are segregating an animal from an exit lane, you need to know which cow is which and when to open the gate accordingly. Without accurate ID, it is impossible to accomplish that goal.
Additionally, read range affects ID capture. That ability is further influenced by the tag used to identify animals in the sort lane. Ask if the read range is sufficient to identify the cows accurately and consistently. Should you use a different tag that offers a better range? Is there electronic “noise” that limits read range? It is also essential to know which cows are being identified by the system. Typically, it is not ideal for cows to be on the backside of the sort lane. Cows walking by the antenna that are not in the lane to be sorted could potentially get identified. This miscue could slow sorting or cause animals to end up in incorrect pens.
Design your setup to shield the ID reading area so that it only identifies the cows walking through the sort lane and does not inadvertently find cows in other areas.
Try these troubleshooting tips
You may have tried a sort gate before but it did not perform to expectations. Realize both software and hardware keep improving, so the experience today may be much smoother than before.
Start by troubleshooting what went wrong with previous sort gates or what is not working with your current system. Begin by asking: Was the issue due to software, hardware or facility design? Was the hardware working correctly? Was the design cow-friendly and did it allow for consistent flow? How was the ID read range? What was the ID rate? If 10 cows went by, were all 10 correctly identified?
If the pain point was design, determine if the sorting lane and pen can be redesigned in a more animal-friendly way. If the challenge was software, can that be overcome with current technology, like noise filters or isolation transformers, to increase tag readability? Changing the tag or even the location of the tag on the cow may also be part of the solution.
Ultimately, data accuracy – whether cow data or automation function – makes all the difference in technology, such as sort gates, serving your dairy well.
