Heat Stress - immediately detected enabling relevant action!
Heat Stress
With the very high temperatures at this time of year we'd like to address the issue of heat stress. Cows clearly feel the effects of the hot weather – as soon as temperatures rise above 22°C they start suffering from heat stress. Their sense of well-being decreases while the farmer's financial loss grows.
Even short periods of heat stress have a negative effect on milk yield. Studies show that after just 4 hours of low-level heat stress milk yield drops by one litre. The longer cows are subjected to high temperatures the greater the drop in milk yield. At temperatures of around 40°C, which are common in southern areas of Europe, cows are subjected to conditions that can cause heat stress from between 13 to 18 hours a day, resulting in a drop in milk yield of some 4 litres per day per cow.
In a herd of 100 cows losses suffered by the farmer soon accumulate. Studies show that losses incurred over an average summer can total over 1600€ per month and in a very hot summer total around 3700€ per month. Even in the shade cows suffer in the heat as they are not able to sweat enough in order to regulate body temperature.
With our sensors (smaXtec pH & Temp Sensor, smaXtec Temp Sensor) heat stress is immediately detected enabling relevant action to be taken. The smaXtec Climate Sensor also measures environmental factors and the risk of heat stress can be further reduced. This increases the cows' comfort levels and reduces financial losses incurred due to heat stress.
Matchmaking Day!
On 24 June the first Matchmaking Day was hosted by Graz City Council at FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Sciences. The aim of this event was to bring young designers and companies together. Ahead of the event, participating companies had submitted their project and depending on requirements either were one or two young designers were allocated to them.
Here at smaXtec we had the pleasure of working with Annabell Spötl, responsible for product design and interior design, and Mac Krebernic, a technical illustrator. The event opened with a presentation which was followed by workshops, which gave rise to a whole range of ideas that were immediately tried out. Even within the very limited time available in the workshops some very interesting approaches to the various issues emerged.
Fast Forward Award
We have entered our innovative product in the Fast Forward Award, a business awards competition held by the Styrian Government. Every year awards are presented for the best innovations from Styrian companies. Following evaluation of the submitted projects smaXtec is through the preliminary round and among the final contenders.
We have been nominated along with 4 other companies in the category “Kleinunternehmer” (small enterprises) and are looking forward to the results of the online voting. The voting platform www.sfg.at/voting is open until 7 August 2015 and all interested parties can vote for their favourite entries in each of the 5 categories.
Reminder – 1st international smaXtec Rumen pH Symposium
The 1st International smaXtec Rumen pH Symposium focusing on the topic of “Rumen pH in Modern Herd Management – A Global Challenge” will be held in Graz on 15 and 16 October 2015.
For further information and to register your participation, please contact:
Elke Muster
Tel. +43 316 46 15 88 - 12
symposium@smaxtec-animalcare.com
Registration deadline: by 30 September 2015
