Moocall safeguards calf births with Vodafone’s IoT technology

Overview

• Moocall is an Irish agricultural technology company providing world-class innovations, such as calving monitoring, for the dairy and beef industry since 2014.

• Having battled calf mortality rates, the company looked for a solution that instantly and reliably contacts farmers when a cow goes into labour.

• By using Vodafone’s IoT platform, farmers now can be aware of a calf’s imminent arrival one hour before its birth.

Meet MooCall

For farmers, the birth of their livestock, especially cows, is not only an important milestone in the health of their herd, but critical to their livelihood. The loss of a calf and its mother feels devastating.

This is why Moocall came to be in 2014. Based in Dublin, Ireland, the company’s main goal is to connect farmers to their animals like never before with the aid of patented IoT-based technology. By offering intuitive, easy-to-use and affordable products for safe, real-time calving and breeding, farmers can finally do what they love most in a more efficient and cost-effective way.

The challenge

Although Moocall’s revolutionary Calving Sensor recorded over a million cow births, there was still no telling when a cow was in the final stages of labour. Farmers who praised Moocall for its accuracy noted that they often found the calf healthy and already born when they received the alert.

Knowing the importance of being present exactly when a cow’s contractions begin, and to avoid birth complications, the Moocall team started looking for a company providing robust and reliable connectivity. There was a crucial requirement: the moment a cow is about to go into labour, this information must be transferred to farmers’ phones accurately and immediately.

The solution

After careful consideration, Moocall opted for Vodafone’s market-leading IoT (Internet of Things) network. When a cow’s contractions reach a certain level of intensity, Moocall’s Calving Sensors send an alert to the farmer’s mobile phone using Vodafone IoT technology, up to one hour before the animal goes into the last stages of labour.

As Garrett Behan, a farmer relying on Moocall’s solutions says: “It gives you great peace of mind. If I think there’s something wrong and I’m away, I can ring my dad and he can come down and check [the cows], even if he’s not on the farm.”

The benefits

By alerting farmers way ahead of time, Vodafone’s IoT technology finally made Moocall a seamless solution that can prevent the unnecessary death of cows during calving season. Now agricultural workers can stop worrying about missing a calf’s birth, and Moocall can continue observing and helping the start of countless new cows’ lives for many years to come.

“I’m very happy with what we’ve achieved because we’ve obviously put a solution to the market which has given everyone a real peace of mind on their on their farm,” adds Emmet Savage, CEO of MooCall.

A company going global

Thanks to Vodafone’s global reach, MooCall managed to expand to further markets, including France, the Netherlands and the U.S. With the reliable connectivity provided by Vodafone, Moocall is more determined than ever to continue its growth and offer its products like the Calving Sensor and Moocall Heat for other agricultural sectors too.

“Vodafone IoT gives us the roaming capability to get our signal out, regardless of the location. We have a huge expansion plan and, in every case, whichever country we’ve signed agreements in, Vodafone IoT has their IoT platforms in those jurisdictions, making Moocall’s globalisation seamless,” concluded Emmet.