A technological advancement developed in Ireland aims to reduce the burden on sleep deprived ranchers during calving season by sending an alert hours before a calf's arrival.

Moocall, a 3G calving sensor equipped with GPS, attaches to a cow’s tail and indicates when the animal is nearly ready to deliver or if the sensor has fallen off.

“The device monitors the contractions in the tail,” said Angela Bucklaschuk of CCWG Livestock Supplies. “Basically, when she’s two hours prior to calving, the device will send notification through text message as well as email up to two cellular devices and then again one hour prior to calving.”

“As she’s getting closer to labour, she’ll have contractions, she’ll swish her tail, the tail will lift and the device monitors those contractions.”

Riley Stormoen, who ranches near Water Valley, admits calving season can be challenging.

“It's always a tough time to wake up at two or three in the morning when its minus thirty out especially, getting all the warm clothes and getting prepared to be frozen for a few minutes,” said Stormoen. “Then go back to bed and wake up again in a few hours to do the same thing.”

Stormoen also works in the oilfield and is not always in close proximity to his ranch. The mobile alerts will allow him to make arrangements in the hours before his herd’s numbers increase.

Stormoen’s herd has several cows that will become first time mothers in the coming weeks and he’s hoping the device will come through should a serious problem occur or if an animal’s maternal instincts fail.

“These cows specifically that have the Moocalls on right now are having their first calves so that’s their very first babies so it's more common for them to have issues having the calves, sometimes they'll forget they had a calf even and run away from it.”

The Moocall, which retail for several hundred dollars each and have a battery life in excess of four weeks, was developed by a group in Ireland that had suffered the loss of a calf.

“With the price of cattle today, farmers can’t really afford to lose a calf,” explained Bucklaschuk. “If there are complications, there’s a risk of losing the cow or both the cow and calf pair together.”

“If it saves one calf, the device has already paid for itself.”

With files from CTV's Chris Epp