Contact Details
Mr Ed Catherwood
Chief Executive Officer
Unit 502 / 143 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
W www.heardsystems.com...
E ed@heardsystems.com....
Heard Systems
Non-invasive Livestock Pregnancy Testing Device
Knowing whether a cow is pregnant is vital information for beef and dairy farmers but short of scheduling a vet to physically examine each animal – an expensive and potentially dangerous option for cows and the foetus - there has been no practical way of obtaining pregnancy status. Cows are too large for regular ultrasound technology, unless rectal probes are used, and real-time cow-side biochemical tests are currently unavailable.
HEARD Systems’ technology can rapidly diagnose whether a cow is pregnant using a non-invasive device placed against the cow. Auditory and electrocardiogram sensors detect the foetal heartbeat, whilst signal processing technology filters out extraneous noise to provide a clear signal.
The battery-operated handheld device is simple to use, meaning that farmers with no specialised training are able to test cows easily and retest as often as they choose, whenever cows are yarded. This ensures pregnant animals are not inadvertently sold, and any cow or heifer can be quickly confirmed as pregnant or ‘empty’.
Pregnant cows can be identified and separated from non-pregnant animals to optimise profits from the sale of cows for slaughter or live export, and to enable better feed allocation during late gestation and post calving. Knowledge of pregnancy status can significantly improve farm profitability – even a 2 percent or 3 percent increase in identified pregnancy rate can generate savings of up to $40 per head.
HEARD Systems is currently refining prototypes, and is discussing a co-development program with a multi-national agritech manufacturing firm. The device prototypes are now being tested and validated in pilot studies. A commercial product is planned for release during 2011.