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At its dairy facility near Prenzlau, Germany, Agrarprodukte Dedelow GmbH has been using the smaXtec system for more than a year with significant improvements in heat detection, herd health and feed management. The diverse farm milks 2,650 cows and cultivates 5,600 hectares of farmland, with a proud tradition of processing milk on this site for over 50 years.
Herd manager Jana Schwarz is more than satisfied: “smaXtec makes our work so much easier. We all work together whether on a phone, tablet or computer, alongside the veterinary surgeon, the specialists and the manager.”
Eyes On Every Cow
For Jana Schwarz, animal health is a deeply personal priority. “Cow health is an extremely important topic for me. I really care about the animals, and smaXtec makes it possible to help them earlier and to react in time.”
This individual focus marks a major shift in herd management. Managing director Thomas Lück explains: “In the past, our eyes were the main tool for deciding when to act, and we paid more attention to group or herd-level issues. Now with smaXtec, we can assess each cow individually and see whether it is doing well or not. We can detect changes in or on the animal at a much earlier stage, even before they would be visible to most people.”
Detecting Illness Earlier: Pain Relief Instead of Antibiotics
Jana Schwarz points out that the most important data for her and the veterinary surgeon team are rumination, temperature, and drinking cycles, followed by activity. These insights have allowed the farm to significantly reduce antibiotic use which is a win for both herd health and economic performance. “Thanks to the mastitis alert, we can react much faster and treat with just a pain-relief tablet, stopping disease progression. A week later, without this early signal, the cow might have developed severe mastitis requiring antibiotics”, she explains.
Herd Health Always in View
With smaXtec, Thomas Lück and his team can keep track of every cow’s health, whether on a mobile phone in the barn or on a PC in the office. “We can observe and review each animal’s data over the entire day, something that would be nearly impossible with our farm’s size and number of groups if we relied only on staff.”
Additional support comes from smaXtec’s digital assistant, which automatically creates management lists. This is especially valuable for large operations like Dedelow, making herd management far more efficient. Staff can be deployed precisely where they are needed, and even new or less experienced employees quickly find their way around.
Optimised Feeding with pH Monitoring
Continuous pH monitoring via smaXtec’s pH bolus, used on about 10% of the herd, has become a key tool for optimising feeding strategies. Thomas Lück explains: “The pH values we get from the boluses help us in daily feeding because every farm has different conditions. We might share similar philosophies, but one farm may rely more on forage due to its setup, while another uses more concentrates.”
To maximise results, the farm works closely with smaXtec’s cattle nutrition consultants. “At the start, we had an on-site audit to review our setup, and since then we’ve had video calls and quick check-ins via WhatsApp and email. The consultant gives us valuable feedback and contacts us whenever she spots irregularities in the data”, Thomas Lück says. The collaboration has measurable impact: analysing pH data allowed the team to adjust feed structure and chop length. Within just a few months, changes to the harvesting and chopping process increased milk yield by 5%. Their next target is an additional 2% increase.
“I Can Still Learn a Lot About the Girls in the Barn.”
Thomas Lück is convinced of smaXtec’s value, but what impresses him most is the individuality of each animal. “For me, it’s fascinating how differently each cow functions, how varied drinking and feeding behaviour can be and how individual body temperatures are, even though we used to assume a standard value. That’s what really interests me, and it shows how much I can still learn about the girls here in the barn.”
