One of the take home messages from the first ever virtual edition of Ireland’s National Dairy Show was that Covid 19 did not stop great innovation in the dairy sector in Ireland.
With judges drawn from across the spectrum of the industry with agricultural consultants, data professionals, research coordinators, industry representatives, agritech journalists and pioneering dairy farmers commiting to virtually scoring and placing the winners of the 2020 National Dairy Innovation Award.
The final results were announced on the second night of the Virtual National Dairy Show, the 29th of October, on an event in which almost 3,000 dairy farmers and professionals tuned in.
The overall winner was deemed to be the FarmOps Milk Recording Module featuring new Lifetime Margin report analyser by Munster Bovine.
The data driven algorithm calculates an easy to understand ‘margin per day’ figure for the dairy farmer using milk recording and other data points.
The judging panel, which also included representatives from two of Munster Bovines competitors, deemed this information to be a game changer in how a farmer can put a monetary value on what each individual cow is contributing to the dairy farms bottom line each day.
With regards to environmental sustainability, this information allows farmers to identify the cows who are efficient and more sustainable producers of milk output allowing for management decisions to reduce a herds carbon footprint while increasing overall farm margins.
The company had early been announced as the science gold winner with the Silver National Dairy Innovation Award in Science going to PharVet (Ireland), with their new product Omnigen.
Omnigen is a scientifically proven stress reducing feed supplement that is clinically proven to reduce antibiotic usage on dairy farms by 30%.
In New Zealand trials, a further 50% reduction was achieved in lameness issues on pasture based units however, further trials continue on these findings.
The Gold National Dairy Innovation Award in Engineering went to GEA for the Inliner Robotic Milking Concept.
The Inliner Everything allows for every step of the milking process to be performed in a single attachment.
This means that the stimulation, teat cleaning, foremilk stripping, milking and post milk dipping all happens within the teat cup reducing the need for separate cleaning operation or post dip/spray.
The Silver National Dairy Innovation Award in Engineering went to previous overall winners, Dairygeyser with a new Temperature Assurance System.
The new TAS is introduced for non-chlorine cleaning to guarantee the performance of the wash by reheating the water and returning it in a closed loop for the duration of the wash cycle.
It solves the issue of hot washes were the temperature drops throughout the wash cycle, with TAS the temperature of the water reaches a pre-set temperature, it starts the timer and the system maintains the temperature for the pre-set wash time.
The Gold National Dairy Innovation Award in Technology went to Terra NutriTech for their newly launched TMR Mineral Dispenser.
The system sprays precisely measured amounts of essential liquid minerals for animal health into diet feeder wagons on the farm.
The technology is the first precision liquid mineral dosing system in the world which gives full real-time visibility and control to farmers.
The Silver National Dairy Innovation Award in Technology went to start up CattleEye.
The Northern Irish based company also won Best Start Up for their machine learning and artificial intelligence monitoring camera system that currently identifies lameness in dairy cows.
Other functionality will be added to the technology over time however, this type of product is seen as a more cost effective method of livestock monitoring than the current wearable monitors currently popular in heat and health detection.
The National Dairy Innovation Awards are in their ninth year and award products or services relevant to the Irish market that launched in the last 12 months.
National Dairy Innovation Award 2020 Finalists
Technology
SmaXtec animal care
smaXtec system SX.2
CattleEye
CattleEye
Terra NutriTech
TMR Mineral Dispenser
Alltech
InTouch portal
GEA
DairyMilk M6850 cell count sensor
GyPSy
GyPSy guidance system
Science
PharVet (Ireland)
Omnigen
ICBF
DNA based calf registration
Bonanza
Transformula
AHV International
Animal Health Vision Concept & Solutions
Allen Nutrition
Dairy Mineral Pellet
Munster Bovine
FarmOps Milk Recording Module featuring new Lifetime Margin report analyser by Munster Bovine
Engineering
Dairygeyser
TAS: Temperature Assurance System
GEA
inLiner robotic milking concept
Agrify
Tailpainter – New Transition/Refill
JM Design
TR Balehandler
KowKatcher