I did not receive my calving alert

If calving took place without you being notified, or if the alert arrived too late, four causes explain most cases: incomplete alert settings, a sensor with poor communication, a badly fitted sensor, or a calving too quick to be anticipated.

This article contains the following sections:

How alerts work
Checking your alert settings
Checking that the sensor was communicating
Checking how the sensor is fitted
Very quick calvings
My new alert level is not being applied
If the problem recurs

How alerts work:

The sensor calculates the probability of calving every quarter of an hour. As soon as it exceeds your alert level, it sends the alert immediately, without waiting for the hourly transmission of measurements. This hourly transmission is only used to update the curves: an alert delay is never explained by this wait.

The sensor makes a series of 3 attempts 10 seconds apart, until the alert is received. If none gets through, a new series is sent 3 hours later. If the probability is still high after 3 hours, a second text message is sent to you.

Checking your alert settings:

This is by far the most common cause.

To check your settings, in the Settings tab of the app:

Check that your phone number is correct, and up to date if you have changed it.
Check that SMS, Voice, or both are ticked.
Check your time slots: a night-time calving triggers nothing if your alerts stop at 10 pm. To be notified at all times, set 00:00 and 23:59.
Run the test text message and test call to confirm reception.

Checking that the sensor was communicating:

An alert cannot be sent if the sensor was no longer sending anything at the time of calving.

Check that the sensor was present on the app's dashboard, and that its curve is continuous over the hours preceding the calving. Gaps in the curve indicate irregular communication.

The most common cause is too great a distance between the sensor and the base station: an animal isolated in a distant pen, or out at pasture, may go out of range.

Checking how the sensor is fitted:

A sensor badly fitted on the tail can prevent calving from being detected. Check that the sensor was fitted according to the installation instructions and that it was held firmly in place by the adhesive tape.

For fitting instructions, see the article Fitting the Vigivel sensor on the animal and assigning it.

Very quick calvings:

Some calvings happen too quickly for the curve to have time to rise and exceed your alert level. Detection then appears after the event: this is a limitation of the method, not a sensor fault.

If this happens to you often
Lower your alert level to around 65 or 70. You will be notified earlier, at the cost of a few alerts that turn out to be unfounded.

My new alert level is not being applied:

Cause	Explanation
Normal delay	Up to 1 hour, the time it takes for the sensor to communicate. An arrow is displayed next to the value during this time.
Only one change per day	The level can only be changed once every 24 hours. A second change on the same day is not taken into account.
Silent sensor	If the sensor is no longer communicating, the new setting cannot reach it.

If the problem recurs:

the actual date and time of calving;
the date and time of the alert, if you received one;
the configured alert level;
the sensor number.

This information allows us to compare with what the sensor measured.

How alerts work:

Checking your alert settings:

Checking that the sensor was communicating:

Checking how the sensor is fitted:

Very quick calvings:

My new alert level is not being applied:

If the problem recurs:

Related articles:

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