Capitals = Areas of Future Potential Study
The UK free trial
90 days, 10 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 penmates you matched her with, on the round you already make. Then the kit you already own measures 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.
Apply for a trial
Tell us about your herd.
It takes 2 minutes. We read every application ourselves and reply in person.
Questions first? Ring or email R.T. Barcik, Founder: 07716 757420 · rt@dmiimpact.com
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.
For vets, nutritionists and advisers
The trial in full.
The same trial, set out at length: the matched control cows, the 4 decisions, why 90 days, week by week, and what it asks of the farm. For anyone advising a herd before it applies.
Recorded on working US dairies, 2014–2017. Captions cover the narration and the founder.
The trial at a glance
No farm in Britain has run one yet.
The herds that go first see what it does on their own cows and their own records, and the rest of the industry will look to what they find.
- Length
- 90 days
- Units
- 10, each on a fresh cow for about 3 weeks
- Controls
- 2 or 3 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
4 decisions, all yours
Every unit is programmable. You decide when she is prompted; we load it.
Tell us your choices before each cycle and we set the units. They then run untouched for 3 weeks before they come off. 1 cow and 1 prompt a day is a perfectly good place to start: a trial looks first at whether the Behaviour changes, and the best pattern is a later question.
1
Which cows
You choose which fresh cows carry a device.
2
How often, and when
How many prompts a day, and at what times between milkings.
3
Another cycle?
Whether to run a 2nd, and then a 3rd, cycle.
4
Change the prompting?
Whether to change the prompting between cycles, with your vet.
Rest and rumination aren’t negotiable for a fresh cow.
That is exactly why the prompting is yours to decide. Start with 1 prompt a day, watch the cows at that time, then decide whether there’s room for a 2nd with the next test group.
Why 90 days, not 60
The length is the reason, not a round number.
Each cow carries a device for about 3 weeks after calving, so 90 days gives the same 10 units room to work up to 3 times, and gives your records time to catch up with the cows.
01
Up to 3 cycles
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
Reproduction in reach
90 days reaches the reproductive figures on the 1st cycle’s cows. 60 days can’t.
90 days, week by week
Watch. Measure. Adapt. Then 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 your kit records →
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 it goes on · 5 steps
- Pre-assemble the unit before you reach the cow.
- Clean the fitting site.
- Dry-fit it in place first.
- Adhesive: it sets in a few minutes.
- Sleeve and strap: one to two fingers of room, never tight.
Wondering whether it hurts? Watch the founder test one on his own forearm (6:03) →
How to choose your control cows
For each cow carrying a sleeve, pick 2 or 3 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
Set it up as you would any fair comparison: the closer the match, the more the difference you see belongs to the device.
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.
Before you ask
An evidence phase, not a sales phase.
There is no price on this page because nothing is for sale during the trial, and there is no obligation at the end of it. We are asking you to help prove it on your cows, not to buy anything.
What your herd shows can help the farms that come after you, if you allow us to share it. Whether to share your data is your decision.
Who it suits
What you record matters more than how many cows you milk.
In any 30-day window we look for up to 10 fresh cows carrying a device and up to 30 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, pedometers and collars, 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.
The science, step by step
What they saw, in full.
The vet, the herd manager and the dairy owners on the farms that used it, the demonstration, and the measured results with their gap stated.
