Customer success story CowManager & PRTG

About CowManager

It’s not always easy being a farmer. Keeping your herd healthy, complying with guidelines and being profitable at the same time is a tough job. We understand those challenges. In fact, we were in the middle of them. After four generations of farming, we discovered that farming could be done easier. It had to be done easier. And that’s why, in 1984, our story started. We invented the first ear sensors for cows. And we’ve been frontrunners ever since. With CowManager you have all the data you want at hand, at any time. Helping you reach your goals, whatever your ambitions are. And whether you have 20 or 20,000 cows… with our cow monitoring service you’ll have eyes on all of them.

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CowManager is an innovative company that combines common sense, technology and innovation. Using CowManager’s tools, farmers can monitor the cows on their farm 24/7.

With real-time information on fertility, health, nutrition and location, farmers know exactly which cows need attention and when. This data helps to make them work more efficiently and also helps to avoid unnecessary medical costs. This in turn improves the overall health and milk production of cows and the CowManager system also helps to focus labour needed on a farm.

“For certain PRTG sensors, the support team will receive a text message if something is happening. They must be kept abreast of any problems before they get any questions about them from customers. We have become truly proactive thanks to PRTG.”

Gert-Jan Hiddink, DevOps Engineer at CowManager

Sustainable approach

CowManager is a revolutionary cow ear sensor for dairy farmers. The sensor provides accurate information on the fertility, health, nutrition and location of each individual cow in a herd. CowManager makes the lives of dairy farmers easier thanks to a proven combination of sensors, routers and softwares based on years of experience in the dairy farming sector and years of research, testing and development. CowManager’s head office is based in the Netherlands. From there we work with farmers all over the world.

All data collected is saved to the Cloud. This information is analysed for farmers and supplied to them via a mobile app or their computer. It is therefore essential for this data to be stored and processed correctly. Network connection, stored data and processes for analysis and feedback are monitored by Paessler PRTG Hosted Monitor within CowManager.

Real-time overview of all cows

The company was started by a farmer’s son, who took over the business from his father and was interested in monitoring and measuring things on farm. “A good farmer can see if a cow is sick or in heat (ready for mating),” Hiddink explains. But not 24/7. This is what inspired Gerard Griffioen, the farmer’s son who launched the company that had a keen interest in automation, to look for an alternative solution, eventually leading to the creation of the CowManager ear sensor we know today. By matching sensor reading to observations, software could be developed that translated the movements of cows into behaviour/well-being.

Based on these insights, and combined with Paessler’s solution, CowManager can see what cows are doing and whether their movements are still considered healthy. This knowledge is the basis of what they can now detect with all the sensors combined (and there are a lot of them!). “We also provide monitoring for large-scale farms. Some of these farms have over 20,000 cows. Paessler helps to dramatically increase our efficiency.”

Farmers work hard and have long days. But they can’t be constantly alerted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. CowManager is here to help. The CowManager tool is now also available for small dairy farms. They can work outside during the day and still keep an eye on the cows when they get home.

“In order to provide the service we do, it’s vital that our systems function properly and retrieve data. That’s why we use Paessler PRTG to monitor everything smoothly. This way our systems can keep running and intervene immediately as and when necessary.”

Working with Paessler PRTG Hosted Monitor

CowManager now works entirely in the Cloud thanks to Paessler. The main office still contains a couple of servers, but, according to Hiddink, as soon as these are gone, the whole company will become completely Cloud-based. A few years ago this was unthinkable, but the transition has been fast. One of the factors that has played a huge role in this is Paessler’s extensive customer base. Thank to the large number of (international) users, a lot of information about PRTG and other solutions can be found online.

The move from PRTG on-premise server to a hosted server was a relatively big step. The Paessler online community, however, provided an ideal outcome: “We had lots of sensors that had been defined and which could not be transferred one-by-one. I was quickly able to find the information I needed through the online community. By using the Powershell module ‘prtgapi’ (courtesy of lordmilko), we were able to create a script that recreates our whole PRTG configuration at the touch of a button. The large PRTG community is Paessler’s greatest strength.”

Computable Award 2023

CowManager and Paessler AG won the Computable Award 2023 for the most sustainable and innovative small and midsize business project.

“We're extremely proud to see our combined solution recognised by Computable readers and its jury, as a way to help farmers care for their cows more effectively, giving them the insights they need 24/7.”

Wilco Ravestein from Paessler AG

Ahead of the herd together

According to Hiddink, PRTG always runs with CowManager. This way the company’s systems are continuously being monitored even when employees are busy with other matters. “Part of our infrastructure runs with Azure. This information is then sent to PRTG via Powershell. Paessler is a great solution for us. We get alerts sent directly to our phones and if something goes wrong somewhere, we can immediately deal with it. It’s our lifeline. This is why Paessler gives us a sense of security no matter what the time of day.”

What the CowManager team greatly appreciates about PRTG is that new information can be added to a sensor very easily. Powershell allows data to be retrieved from a variety of sources and recorded in PRTG. “This gives us a single system with which to monitor our operational processes.” According to Hiddink, this too emphasises the strength of Paessler’s PRTG solution.

Conclusion

PRTG is constantly developing, and customers have a major influence on this. “If you find something, you can indicate this, and you’ll be able to see if an adjustment or modification is possible. Paessler’s open culture fits well with the atmosphere of our company. We monitor the system together and share joint responsibility. We’re keeping an eye on developments and always seeing if we can use PRTG in other ways.”

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