Capitals = Areas of Future Potential Study
Measure it
Not a test of you. A check on what you’ve already seen.
The pedometers, collars, boluses, condition scores, cameras, parlour meters and herd software you already run record each sign in turn: Behaviour within days, Body Condition over the weeks, then Peak, Fertility and Herd Life. Persistency and full-lactation Milk show last, and in full only over the whole lactation. This page sets out what records what, and what a hard transition costs while you wait.
Recorded on working US dairies, 2014–2017. Captions cover the narration and the founder.
Other wearables measure what cows do.DMI Impact changes what cows do.
The pedometers and collars, boluses, cameras, parlour meters and herd software you already run are what show the change, down to the minute she gets up.
The order the signs show up
Each sign has a record already keeping it.
Read your test cows against the penmates you matched them with, in this order. You see the first rung yourself; your own kit records every rung after it.
When
What shows
What records it on your farm
First · days
Behaviour: more visits to the feed barrier, more time there, more cud chewing
Lower rumination in the 21 days after calving went with Milk furthest below prediction: Kemel et al. 2025 · Netherlands and Belgium · González et al. 2008 · UK
Pedometers (getting up, steps, lying) and collars (cud chewing, eating time), minute by minute around the prompt times you decide. Boluses, and pen or calving cameras, where you have them
Then · weeks
Body Condition held, rather than borrowed against
Roche et al. 2009 · New Zealand, France and Ireland · Bédère et al. 2018 · France
Body Condition scoring or BCS cameras
Then · the lactation
An earlier, higher Peak (its height and its timing), then Fertility (back in calf) and Herd Life
McArt et al. 2012 · USA · Sheldon et al. 2009 · UK
Parlour meters or AMS for Peak; herd software for first service, conception and culls
Last to fully show
Persistency, and more Milk per cow, per lactation
Measured on 6 US dairies: +10% floor to +16% ceiling. DMI Impact commercial observation, not peer-reviewed: anecdotal until scientific studies verify it.
Milk recording, parlour meters or AMS: Persistency and Milk per lactation, however long she milks
Milk is a lagging indicator, not the goal in itself.
There are many lagging indicators of a cow’s Health across her year. Milk measures like Peak, its height and its timing, come early. Persistency and full-lactation Milk are measured at the end. In between, Body Condition and Fertility follow her Health too. We track Milk per lactation, the way you plan it, and your dry-off and cull decisions stay yours, whichever group a cow is in.
About 3 in 5 UK dairy farmers already use automated cow monitoring. Barraclough 2020 · UK
She pays 2×
Body Condition spent in the fresh pen is bought back later, at a premium.
Losing half a condition score in the first 60 days after calving is typical. Putting a score back on later in the lactation takes about 35% more feed energy than the score held, so the condition she doesn’t mobilise is condition you never buy back.
385 Mcal × 4.184 MJ/Mcal = 1,611 MJ · 520 Mcal × 4.184 = 2,176 MJ · 520 ÷ 385 = 1.35 → 35% more
NASEM 2021 · USA (one condition score, 650 kg cow)
When the transition goes badly · per 1,000 cows per year
The bills arrive in the order a herd pays them. Full-lactation lost Milk comes last.
Treatment first, then the condition she has to put back, then the days before she’s back in calf, then the cows that leave early. Every pound figure is a DMI Impact calculation from cited inputs, written out in full. 4 bills priced, 2 counted in their own units. Every bill worked through: the cost, step 2 of 4 →
Total exposure
£339,497
per 1,000 cows per year
£8,253 + £21,614 + £7,125 + £302,505 = £339,497
Up to £521,000 at the measured ceiling, with lost Milk at 16%:
£36,992 + £484,008 = £521,000
Per 1,000 cows per year · milk at £0.35/L (Defra · UK, July 2026) · DMI Impact calculation, assumptions stated
A percentage increase is anecdotal until scientific studies verify the correlation and the causation.
What the total leaves out
The total is a floor, not the whole bill.
On the farms that used it, the vet’s goal is to provide a healthy cow, so that it’s not an involuntary cull. She got sick, she wasted away, and I had to sell her — I didn’t have a choice. It’s to get all of them through here, and then I make my choice about when, not have the choice made for me.
Dr Kerry McGehee, Veterinarian · on involuntary culling, in his own words
Milk is the last thing to fully show
Behaviour first. Then Health, in their own words. Then Measured Milk: +10% floor to +16% ceiling.
On 6 US commercial dairies, conventional and organic, over more than 10 years, the farms saw more visits to the feed barrier first. The vets and herd managers described fresh-cow Health in their own accounts, on film; it has not been measured in a formal study. Measured Milk came last. Commercial observation, not peer-reviewed.
A percentage increase is anecdotal until scientific studies verify the correlation and the causation.
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.
The evidence behind this page · 20 sources
Every figure on this page traces to a named source we hold in full. Pound figures are DMI Impact calculations from those sources, written out beside each bill. The +10% and +16% are DMI Impact commercial observation, not peer-reviewed, and anecdotal until scientific studies verify the correlation and the causation. Jeremy Setters’ figures are his own record of one cow, with the conversion written out.
- DMI Impact commercial observation, six US commercial dairies, conventional and organic, over more than ten years: measured milk of test cows over matched control cows, +10% floor to +16% ceiling. Not peer-reviewed, and anecdotal until scientific studies verify it.
- Kemel C et al. (2025) Association of artificial intelligence-predicted milk yield residuals to behavioral patterns and transition success in multiparous dairy cows. J Dairy Sci · Netherlands and Belgium · doi.org/10.3168/jds.2024-26134
- González LA, Tolkamp BJ, Coffey MP, Ferret A, Kyriazakis I (2008) Changes in feeding behavior as possible indicators for the automatic monitoring of health disorders in dairy cows. J Dairy Sci · UK · doi.org/10.3168/jds.2007-0530
- Barraclough RAC (2020) The use of advanced technology to enhance monitoring of dairy cow health. PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh · UK · era.ed.ac.uk
- Roche JR et al. (2009) Body condition score and its association with dairy cow productivity, health, and welfare. J Dairy Sci · New Zealand, France and Ireland · doi.org/10.3168/jds.2009-2431
- Bédère N et al. (2018) Meta-analysis of the relationships between reproduction, milk yield and body condition score in dairy cows. Livestock Science · France · doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2018.01.017
- McArt JAA, Nydam DV, Oetzel GR (2012) Epidemiology of subclinical ketosis in early lactation dairy cattle. J Dairy Sci · USA · doi.org/10.3168/jds.2012-5443
- Sheldon IM et al. (2009) Defining postpartum uterine disease and the mechanisms of infection and immunity in the female reproductive tract in cattle. Biol Reprod · UK · doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod.109.077370
- Defra (2026) Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025 (average lactation 8,643 L) · UK · gov.uk
- Defra (2026) United Kingdom milk prices and composition of milk, notice for August 2026 (July 2026: 35 ppl) · UK · gov.uk
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2021) Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle, 8th revised edition, p.34 · USA · nationalacademies.org
- Macrae AI et al. (2019) Prevalence of excessive negative energy balance in commercial United Kingdom dairy herds · UK
- USDA APHIS NAHMS (2018) Dairy 2014, Report 3: Health and Management Practices on U.S. Dairy Operations · USA · aphis.usda.gov
- Steeneveld W et al. (2020) Estimating the combined costs of clinical and subclinical ketosis in dairy cows. PLoS ONE · Netherlands · doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230448
- Liang D (2013) Estimating the economic losses from diseases and extended days open with a farm-level stochastic model. MSc thesis · USA
- Raboisson D, Mounié M, Maigné E (2014) Diseases, reproductive performance, and changes in milk production associated with subclinical ketosis in dairy cows. J Dairy Sci · France · doi.org/10.3168/jds.2014-8237
- Mostert PF (2018) The impact of diseases in dairy cows on greenhouse gas emissions and economic performance · Netherlands · doi.org/10.18174/445487
- Macmillan S (2024) Advice on calculating cull cow costs accurately. Farmers Weekly (cites NMR 2023) · UK · fwi.co.uk
- Wöckel A et al. (2026) Economics of production diseases at the individual animal level in German dairy farms. Dairy · Germany · doi.org/10.3390/dairy7020026
- von Soosten D, Meyer U, Flachowsky G, Dänicke S (2020) Dairy cow health and greenhouse gas emission intensity. Dairy · Germany · doi.org/10.3390/dairy1010003
Next · The trial
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10 units, your own cows, your own records.
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