Dairy producers have an evident need to monitor individual cows and groups of cows to adjust management (e.g., feeding, comfort, heat abatement), to identify ill cows and cows at risk for disease, and for reproductive management. The quest for automated monitoring systems is not new. Several monitoring systems are now readily available to producers that seek what is believed to be more precise and consistent management of individual cows and groups of cows. Such systems, however, will only positively impact dairies when the data produced by the systems are translated into a clear language that allows prompt proactive measures to solve problems or to make decisions. In recent experiments, we and others have demonstrated that automated health monitoring systems have the potential to expedite the diagnosis of metabolic diseases compared with clinical evaluation alone or cow-side tests at predetermined intervals from calving. Questions remain, however, about the advantages of such earlier diagnosis to the health and performance of the cow and whether different therapy strategies may be adopted according to a cow’s patterns of rumination, feeding, and activity. Several experiments have demonstrated that the benefits of automated estrous detection monitoring systems is highly dependent on the herd’s current reproductive strategy and performance. Generally, herds with poor estrus detection efficiency and accuracy are the herds that could potentially gain the most with the incorporation of automated estrus detection systems into their reproductive management. Finally, in recent experiments we have demonstrated that genetic selection for cattle with greater reproductive aptitude may changed physiological responses during the estrous cycle to the point of altering phenotypes associated with estrus (e.g., acceptance of mount, walking/activity, rumination), which may ultimately facilitate detection of estrus. Automated monitoring systems are becoming more accessible to dairies of all sizes, however, considering the initial cost of such technologies, one should be cautious not to seek a problem to make use of a new tool, but instead seek a new tool to solve an existing problem.