Our new Cow•Vac is a revolutionary way to control pest flies on dairy cows. Place it in the entry or exit of the milking parlor. As your cows walk through, the Cow•Vac will blow Horn Flies, Face Flies, Stable Flies and House Flies off the back, belly, face, flanks and legs into a vacuum system that collects them in a removable bag for disposal.
For Horn Flies, which generally stay on the cow, the Cow•Vac will collect them faster than they can reproduce so you can use the Cow•Vac as your primary control for this fly. For Stable Flies, Face Flies and House Flies, which are more likely to fly off when disturbed, the Cow•Vac can significantly reduce their numbers. For full control the use of Fly Predators and good manure management will still be needed.
Within a few days cows learn they feel a lot better after going through the Cow•Vac so even the spookiest cows accept it quickly. Some get to liking it too much and need a little nudging from the next cow to move on.
The most economically significant fl y for grazing dairies has been the Horn Fly. Production is impacted with as few as 200 Horn Flies on a cow, and it’s not uncommon to have a thousand on a single animal. Your productivity loss can be up to 15%.
The Horn Fly is also the most difficult to control. Pesticide resistance is prevalent in most of the world so ear tags and oilers are now largely ineffective. Since these flies reproduce only in undisturbed cow pats in pasture, control by disturbing the pats with harrows or drags, using pour-ons or releasing Fly Predators in the pasture are all labor intensive. With a Cow•Vac, the Horn Fly might now be your easiest fly to control. It will make your day turning gallons of these miserable little buggers into good fertilizer.
Pricing of the Cow•Vac is $7,495 including the two side panels, FOB Chicago. The Cow•Vac costs just pennies per day to run and is easy to maintain. Simply empty the mesh catch bag when full and at the same time clean the removable filters.
Arrange your alleyway to the milk parlor to place the device before the holding pen. It’s best to locate the Cow•Vac where the least amount of disturbance to flies will have occurred. However, prototypes have run successfully at the exit of the milking parlor. Locating the Cow•Vac at the exit will result in collecting fewer Stable Flies, Faces Flies and House Flies as they generally leave the cow with the disturbance caused by getting to and going through milking.
You can mount the Cow•Vac on your alleyway panels or use the panels we provide. The Spalding panels have three adjustable horizontal rails that will allow you to perfectly set the height of the pressure and vacuum nozzles to match your animals. An electrician will need to install a 110v single phase, 20a GFI outlet that can be reached by the 10’ power cord. If AC power is not available a 9,000 starting watt portable generator (typically these are approximately 6500 watt continuous) is sufficient to start and run the 1.5 HP fan motor which requires 15 amps at full load.
Click here to open detailed installation instructions or click here to download the instruction manual.
At every dairy that a Cow•Vac has been installed so far, it has taken a only a few days for cows to become comfortable going through the unit. A very conservative approach would be to first install the main housing only and let the cows become accustomed to it for a day or two. Then add the nozzles and curtains but leave the system off for a day. Next turn on the fan with the pressure pointing away from the cows. Finally run it with pressure and vacuum ducts in their working positions. Your cows go through without hesitation and within a few days the flies will be drastically reduced.
Simply turn the fan on prior to each milking and off when the last cow goes thru. That’s all there is to running it. Depending on your fly load, the collection bag will need to be dumped about once a week and at the same time clean the two filters with air or water. If cow hair and debris build up in the fan area, periodically remove that material. Expect periodic replacement of filter screens (these use standard window screen material available at hardware stores), catch bag and vinyl curtains which are available from Spalding.
The Cow•Vac comes with a one year Limited Warranty and 90-Day Money Back Guarantee if you are an existing Fly Predator customer. The Dayton fan has a one year warranty and replacements are available direct from Grainger or Spalding Labs. The interior lights are long lasting LEDs.
For 46 years, Spalding Laboratories has been the leader in expert pesticide free fly control. Our products include Fly Predators®, Bye Bye Odor®, Traps, and now the Cow•Vac.