Merck Animal Health Launches SenseHub™ Dairy Youngstock with Group Housing Capability to Provide Farmers with Actionable Insights to Make More Informed Decisions

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Source: Merck Animal Health

Merck Animal Health, known as MSD Animal Health outside of the United States and Canada, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (NYSE:MRK), today announced the availability of SenseHub™ Dairy Youngstock for preweaned calves in individual hutches and group housing, the industry’s first monitoring technology for dairy calves from birth through the first 12 months of life, for herds of all sizes.

SenseHub Dairy Youngstock makes it easier for dairy producers to detect and locate calves and heifers that need attention. Proprietary, science-based algorithms constantly monitor animal behaviors through the special SenseHub monitoring ear tag. The technology identifies animals that exhibit behaviors that fall outside their individual norms, indicating they may need attention. The SenseHub monitoring ear tag incorporates a blinking LED light so producers and farmers can quickly and easily locate those animals and apply appropriate interventions.

Calves have a natural tendency to hide symptoms of disease. SenseHub Dairy Youngstock helps to overcome this instinctive behavior by identifying potential signs of illness, often before symptoms are apparent to producers or farmers.

“The health and well-being of calves and heifers is essential to establishing the long-term health and well-being of the entire herd,” said Juan Pedro Campillo, global lead, SenseHub Dairy Youngstock. “With SenseHub Dairy Youngstock, dairy producers can now harness objective insights to find calves that may need extra care and then provide early intervention to keep them on a path toward becoming healthy and productive cows.”

This technology also allows dairy farmers to alleviate the increasing labor shortages on farms and benefit from an increased “peace of mind” when managing their daily operations from their smartphones. With SenseHub Dairy Youngstock, dairy farmers can focus their valuable time and resources on the calves and heifers that need attention. In doing so, the new SenseHub Dairy Youngstock solution increases well-being conditions for the animals and allows for more sustainable herd health management of the farm. The efficiency associated with the technology allows producers and farmers to adjust the workflow on their operation and more effectively utilize their resources.

SenseHub Dairy Youngstock is compatible with management systems involving nipple-fed calves housed in individual hutches and group pens from birth to weaning, and post-weaning calves housed in group pens from three to 12 months of age. Monitoring tags are attached and begin generating actionable insights within 27 hours.

Dairy producers should consult with their veterinarians for guidance on disease diagnosis and protocols for intervention

New Updates to SenseHub Ecosystem

The SenseHub Ecosystem now includes new capabilities aimed at allowing farms of all sizes to boost productivity by providing insights that help farmers make more informed decisions related to the health and performance of their animals and farm.

“Farmers are looking for ways to meet the increased demand for animal protein, yet farms globally are faced with a range of challenges, including milk price volatility, input costs, labor shortages and environmental challenges,” said Tiago Arantes, associate vice president, Global Livestock lead, Merck Animal Health. “With its recent enhancements, the SenseHub Ecosystem can support farms of all sizes in addressing these challenges through customizable and integrated tools that provide data to help make more informed choices.”

New SenseHub Ecosystem and Dairy Features

A number of new capabilities have also been added to the broader SenseHub Ecosystem which include:

SenseHub Ecosystem

  1. SenseHub Services: a new online resource for SenseHub users designed to empower customers with new self-service capabilities.
  2. SenseHub Insights: an advanced herd management tool to allow farmers to monitor and track trends in their herd and farm management processes which is accessible via SenseHub Services
  3. New Third-Party Connections: which will create a more unified technology experience for farmers. The first of these new connections is ‘Predicta Guardian’ which helps farmers become aware of potential health issues in animals six to eight weeks before they emerge which allow farmers to take a proactive preventative approach.

SenseHub Dairy

SenseHub Dairy now provides greater capacity to cater for larger dairies alongside an enhanced customer experience with new and improved system capabilities. Key additions include:

  1. Scalability: Increased capacity from 5,000 to 15,000 animals means large dairies can now also utilize the benefits of the SenseHub Dairy Ecosystem.
  1. Batch Group Entry: Report customisable events for individual and multiple animals or by preselected groups for a more seamless SenseHub Dairy experience.
  2. Heat Report Masked by Group Activity: Enhanced functionality of SenseHub Dairy Behavior Monitoring means that a farm can focus its system on those animals that are truly in heat and block the abnormal group activity.
  3. Third Party LED Task Management: New capability enables SenseHub Dairy users to activate the LED functionality of the SenseHub Dairy Behavior Monitoring Ear Tag through third party software for a more seamless experience.
  4. SenseHub Dairy Youngstock: Building on last Summer’s launch of the industry’s first monitoring technology for dairy calves from birth through the first 12 months of life, SenseHub Dairy Youngstock now supports pre-weaned nipple fed calves in group housing as well as hutches

The SenseHub family of brands from Merck Animal Health provides advanced monitoring technology to put dairy and beef producers in control of every aspect of their operations. SenseHub Dairy delivers actionable insights for optimal dairy herd productivity and management. For feedlot, backgrounding and stocker operations, SenseHub Feedlot can help to detect potentially sick cattle earlier, more efficiently and more accurately than traditional visual observation.

For more information visit: https://merck.sensehub.global/

About Merck Animal Health

At Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than a century, we’ve been at the forefront of research, bringing forward medicines, vaccines and innovative health solutions for the world’s most challenging diseases. Merck Animal Health, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA, is the global animal health business of Merck. Through its commitment to The Science of Healthier Animals®, Merck Animal Health offers veterinarians, farmers, producers, pet owners and governments one of the widest ranges of veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines and health management solutions and services as well as an extensive suite of connected technology that includes identification, traceability and monitoring products. Merck Animal Health is dedicated to preserving and improving the health, well-being and performance of animals and the people who care for them. It invests extensively in dynamic and comprehensive R&D resources and a modern, global supply chain. Merck Animal Health is present in more than 50 countries, while its products are available in some 150 markets. For more information, visit www.merck-animal-health.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA

This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and the company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov).