Economic effects of automated health monitoring based on sensors versus visual observation for dairy cows in early lactation

The objective of this study was to compare the cash flow of lactating Holstein cows randomized to health monitoring strategies that relied exclusively on automated health alerts or visual observation for selecting cows for clinical examination from 3 to 21 d in milk (DIM). Data from a randomized controlled trial was used to estimate total cash flow per cow and per slot up to 100 DIM. We expected that greater milk yield in early lactation for the group monitored with automation would result in gr