The free trial
Ninety days, ten units, your own cows, and no cost to you.
The first step is watching. Each test cow wears a bright green sleeve, on purpose, so you can set her against the penmate you matched her with on the round you already make. Then the collars, boluses and parlour meters you already own measure what you saw, and the records stay on your own systems.
Apply for a trial ↓Recorded on working US dairies, 2014–2017. Captions cover the narration and the founder on camera.
Apply for a trial
Tell us about your herd.
It takes two minutes. We read every application ourselves and reply in person.
- Length
- Ninety days
- Units
- Ten, each on a fresh cow for about three weeks
- Controls
- Two or three matched cows from your own herd for every cow carrying a device
- Your time
- About 15 minutes of handling per cow, all in
- Cost to you
- None
- At day 90
- We share our analysis of the data with you
Thank you — that’s with us.
We read every application ourselves, so the next message you get will be from a person, not an autoresponder. Expect to hear from us within two working days.
If it’s urgent, ring 07716 757420 or email rt@dmiimpact.com.
Why ninety days
The length is the reason, not a round number.
Each cow carries a device for about three weeks after calving. Ninety days gives the same ten units room to work three times over, and gives your records time to catch up with the cows.
01
Up to three cycles
Three rounds of fresh cows on the same units, so fresh-cow health and milk production are each measured more than once.
02
Room to adjust
Between cycles, you and your vet can change the prompting, at the pace that suits you.
03
Fertility in reach
Ninety days reaches the reproductive figures on the first cycle’s cows. US dairies were offered sixty; British farms get thirty more.
How the ninety days run
See it. Measure it. Decide.
You are in charge from the first cow chosen to the last record read. The watching fits the round you already make; the measuring is done by kit you already own.
What you’ll watch, and when
More moments to watch, on the Solution page →
Your kit measures it
Not a test of you. A check on what you’ve already seen.
You already know what early energy balance means for the rest of her lactation. These are the records you already keep, read for your test cows against their matched penmates. The data stays on your systems, and whether to share it is your decision.
What it asks of you
Point us to the cows. We do the rest.
- Choose the cows you want to study, and give us their ear-tag numbers.
- Have them in the headlocks when it’s time to fit.
- We fit the units and take them off: about 15 minutes of handling per cow, all in.
- If your team would rather fit them, we’ll show them how.
How to choose your control cows
For each cow carrying a sleeve, pick two or three penmates matched as closely as you can on:
- genetics
- parity
- days in milk, or fresh date
- pen
- milking schedule
- feed and ration
- handlers, barn conditions and time of year
The closer the match, the more the difference you see belongs to the device.
Wondering whether it hurts? Watch the founder test one on his own forearm (3:34) →
What stays the same
Unchanged
Your ration
Nothing added to the feed, and nothing taken away.
Unchanged
Your protocols
Your treatment protocols, and your vet’s, stay exactly as they are.
Your call
Your cows
You choose which cows carry a device, and how often and when they’re prompted.
Yours to keep
Your data
Every record stays on your own systems, and whether to share it is your decision.
Everything is recorded by the kit you already use: your collars, boluses, parlour meters and herd software, against the same measures you track through the lactation.
Before you ask
We’re after evidence, not a sale.
There is no price on this page because this is a pre-commercial evidence phase. Nothing is for sale during the trial, and there is no obligation at the end of it.
What we need is evidence gathered on British cows, against British records, by the kit British farms already own. With your permission, what your herd shows will help the farms that come after you. Without it, your results stay with you.
Who it suits
What you record matters more than how many cows you milk.
In any month we look for up to ten fresh cows carrying a device and up to thirty matched fresh cows as controls. A herd of around 500 calves enough cows to fill both groups in one pass, which is why 500 is our target. It is not a minimum.
Larger herds
One pass
Enough cows calve within the month to fill the test and control groups together.
Smaller herds
Often the more interesting trial
With robotic milking or detailed individual recording, the depth of data on each cow makes up for the number of cows. These trials simply run over more than one block.
Next · Film 7 · Vet and dairy owner FAQs
The twelve questions vets, dairy owners and herd managers ask us most.
The twelve questions →