Bayer : BCS Cowdition smartphone application simplifies and standardizes body condition scoring (BCS) ...

Monheim, November 23, 2017 - Bayer has combined the convenience of mobile and digital technology with the power of 'big data' to further cattle health in a practical, yet innovative way through its updated BCS Cowdition smartphone application. In a significant new update, BCS Cowdition now helps enable dairy professionals to make timelier and informed herd health management decisions by offering alerts, as well as a comprehensive dashboard of farm-specific data and aggregated data from external sources.

The 2014 release of Bayer's BCS Cowdition app minimized visual subjectivity of body condition scoring with an innovative photo-and-line fit system, allowing for accurate and standardized assessment of individual cows, with just a smartphone. The app is already used in 14 languages, enabling dairy professionals in over 90 countries to more efficiently manage the health of their herds.

New updates to BCS Cowdition now gives alerts for cows of sub-optimal body condition scores that need to be attended to, and provides a comprehensive dashboard that is synchronized with the farm's existing herd management system. This dashboard also draws in 'big data' from external sources to offer dairy professionals further insights to the health condition of the herd, thanks to Bayer's partnership with Dairy Data Warehouse.

Rinse Boersma, Global Marketing Director for Dairy Cattle at Animal Health, Bayer, said, 'We are committed to cattle health and we are passionate about achieving this in innovative ways. The new features with our BCS Cowdition app and our partnership with Dairy Data Warehouse takes the convenience of the app to a whole new level. This offers greater opportunity for dairy professionals to efficiently monitor and manage the health of their herd, as well as the unprecedented ability to garner insights from existing herd data. Through this partnership the app can offer tailored and specialized solutions to each cow.'

Body condition scoring is a hugely important part of herd health management as it offers a reliable way to assess the health of dairy cows across the entire production cycle. Cows with an inappropriate body condition are at increased risk of various metabolic diseases, as well as an adverse effect on fertility. These conditions are major causes of productivity loss and adverse well-being of dairy cows, so monitoring body condition scores across a herd is a key first step to ensuring optimal health and well-being, as well as productivity and profitability.

Boersma added, 'The prompt alerts help ensure that body condition measurements are collected with enough regularity to provide meaningful data. This, combined with the ability to import and compare herd data from external sources, means that dairy professionals can get a comprehensive herd-level picture, and identify as well as address problems early. Individual cow data, alerts about problem animals and additional information on disease risks provide dairy professionals with the tools to tackle those problems effectively. We are pleased to be able to offer such a practical application of technology to help farmers and veterinarians improve the health of the animals they care for.'

Bayer BCS Cowdition is available free-for-download from the AppStore and GooglePlay. The update will be released progressively from November 2017. Current users of the app will be automatically informed of the new update.

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