hen Peder and Susan Barsness, Starbuck, MN were looking for a way to

efficiently manage their cows, they decided to purchase CowManager.

They felt that the CowManager ear tags seemed like a worry free way to monitor herd health and manage heat detection compared to a collar system. “The ear tags are easy to put in and you don’t have to deal with the hassle of switch-ing collars from cow to cow,” notes Peder. The Barsnesses installed CowManager and attached 130 CowManager ear tags on Christmas Eve of 2014. Since then, they have relied 100% on CowManager for heat detection.

“Before CowManager, I would have to jump out of the skid steer to try and see the ear tag of a cow in standing heat in the barn. Now with CowManager, I can trust the system to tell me who is in heat 24 hours a day,” states Peder.

The CowManager ear tag is de-tecting cows who usually don’t show strong heats for the Barsnesses. “I recall breeding five cows who were not showing visual standing heats, but were showing heats on Cow-Manager. When I palpated them, they felt great and I bred them. Three of the five were pregnant on the next herd check and that’s ex-actly what I want!” explains Peder.

The herd’s overall reproductive performance has improved. The average DIM pregnant has dropped from 176 days to 149 while the 21-day pregnancy rate has improved five percent.

Susan Barsness is also a big fan of CowManager. “When we are on vacation with the family, I’m able to look at CowManager directly from my phone. It is reassuring that I can still monitor the farm when I’m away from home and check in with employees about alerted cows,” says Susan.

The Barsnesses utilize CowMan-ager’s health module for early identifica-tion of cows that are getting sick or have displaced abomasums.

When asked about their invest-ment in CowManager, Peder replies with confidence, “It’s going to pay for itself in no time for us. It was a no brainer!”

CowManager “Will Pay For Itself In No Time” At Barsness Dairy

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Cow Manager is “going to pay for itself in no time. It’s a no brainer."

Peder Barsness, Starbuck, MN

Susan (on left) uses the mobile phone app to monitor the cows when they are on family vacations and checks in with employess about cows on the “alert” list. Susan is pictured above with her daughter Abbie and husband Peder.