Nifty land cleaner

Phillip Ansell from Killakee Livery Yard, Killakee, Rathfarnham in Dublin 16 developed the Nifty Picker Land Cleaner as an effective, simple and affordable manure and debris collecting machine for all horse owners. It allows horse owners to collect and remove horse manure from your paddocks and fields, helping to keep your horses happy and your land cleaner, smoother and healthier too.

Phillip found that when horse manure is left to accumulate in fields and paddocks, it can turn the pasture very sour. It will invite weeds such as docks nettles and thistles to grow. This manure is very detrimental to the health and wellbeing of your horses, due to the ongoing parasite cycle.

All horses living in these conditions can quickly become ill due to serious worm burden. The pasture can become very uneven with clumps of grass growth and will provide a lower quality and value in the grass as a food source.

Phillip claims that the new Nifty Picker helps to solve this problem and promotes healthier pasture and animal health.

Multi-purpose calving aid

Retired farmer Anthony Bergin from Cooleshall, Dublin Rd, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, developed this multi-purpose calving aid after a lifelong career as a dairy farmer. Anthony always had an interest in making farm work easier. He has previously won prizes in the Tullamore Inventions Competition and Irish Farmer’s Journal competition for his designs.

Anthony’s new multi-purpose calving aid is made of galvanised piping and can be used to help calve a cow, to lift a calf that has breathing problems after birth and to lift an animal’s hoof for inspection/pairing. The device is attached to cattle crush bars or a gate and can be raised up to 2.1m (7ft) high.

The pulley can then be used to calve a cow while she is standing up. It can be lowered down to 450mm (18in) to calve a cow lying down. The cow would have to be in a calving pen.

Storing farm information

Jason Devenney from Port Road, Letterkenny, developed the Farmflo farm recording system in response to the needs of the Donegal family farm. Trading as Farmflo, Jason Devenney said he created a cloud-based application in response to his brother Gareth’s need to find a suitable solution to manage his farm records.

The Farmflo system allows for accurate recording of farm records in the field in line with compliance and regulation. Farmflo has since been taken up by over 200 farmers across Ireland and the UK, according to Jason.

Light step forest forwarder

Marcia Franklin from Oldcastle, Co Meath, says her new Falcon mini-forwarder will be highly productive, competitively priced and designed with due regard to environmentally sensitive forestry sites. The forwarder is an eight-wheeled articulated machine used to transport logs from the forest floor. It has a hydraulic timber crane and grapple which is used to load logs on to the machine’s trailer, known as a bunk. It has a ground clearance of 500mm with a track system allowing the machine to be used on sensitive sites. The Falcon is claimed to be the first Irish-built mini-forwarder and to be technically superior to other mini-forwarders on the market today.

Samco goes bean sowing

Samco Agricultural Manufacturing Ltd from Tough, Adare, Co Limerick, entered its three-in-one beans drill. David Shine of Samco said the beans drill was developed to spray pre-emergence herbicide, sow beans and cover the crop in degradable film in one pass, based on the experience with maize drills. It has required the specific design and manufacture of a unique machine to cope with the seed bed widths for spring field beans, and the seed sowing rates for this crop. The creation of a 2.2m wide film with degradable properties was also required.

Low energy slurry aeration

DionErgy Ltd based at the Hartnett Enterprise Acceleration Centre at the Limerick Institute of Technology entered the Envirolung Aeration system. This is claimed to be a low-energy aerator, the first in a series of planned products. A plug and go unit, Envirolung is said to be easy to install while delivering cash savings in terms of energy efficiency and sludge management. The innovation is the technology used within the products. Rose Lenihan of Dion Energy says the process for getting air into tanks has a patent pending. “It works by creating a vacuum to drive air downwards and then creates thousands of tiny micro-bubbles of air which disperse throughout the tank,” she says. “These stay in the water 90% longer than air from standard compressor systems. The air delivered keeps the waste liquid in an aerobic state, stopping the build-up and release of hydrogen sulphide and reducing the volume of sludge in waste liquids,” adds Rose.

Pumping slurry

John O’Brien, who runs his own engineering and mechanical business at Ahakeera, Dunmanway, Co Cork, has entered a novel diaphragm slurry pump. John is a self-employed milking machine technician who installs and services dairy and other farm equipment, including automatic slurry scrapers. His innovation is a slurry pump that can move slurry or sewage. The pump can be driven by an electric or hydraulic power pack or integrated into the on-farm hydraulic slurry scraper system. “Because it uses a diaphragm and not an impellor, it does not get blocked when pumping soil water and slurry,” says John.

Keeping guns safe

Jamie Counihan of Salvogram, based in Kilflynn, Tralee, Co Kerry, has developed a security solution for firearms. James says his product helps make shotguns, rifles and handguns safer for everyone. Salvogram is being supported by Enterprise Ireland, employs a team of three and is a participant in the New Frontiers development programme. The security product uses an innovative locking mechanism that can be easily attached by the owner to any firearm. Unauthorized access or movement of a firearm enables notifications to be sent instantly. The product will have its official launch at the Ploughing.

Keeping safe at slurry work

Alan and Colette Martin from Slurrysafe Ltd of Tournageeha, Ballyduff Upper, Co Waterford, have entered the Slurrysafe unit, a railed-in galvanised steel safety platform that will be bolted on to both sides of the concrete wall at the entrance to the open slurry pit. It has an agitation point on its steel non-slip floor and also has a separate entry point for the hose pipe used to extract the slurry. This safety platform has a 1.8m high railing and a further railing is provided to the existing gate posts as necessary, resulting in a caged-in effect at the entrance to the pit. Alan and Collette believe that using Slurrysafe will allow the user to safely access and use the agitator without any risk of falling into the pit.

Harmony feeder

Veterinary physician Michelle O’Connor developed the Harmony feeder to mimic grazing for horses when they are in a stable. “I noticed a lot of problems when horses were getting small amounts of hay, two of three times a day. There was as increase in stress on the neck and top line as they were eating from mangers as well as an increase in ulcers,” says Michelle.

The Harmony feeder allows horses to pick naturally at their feed throughout the day, just as if they were grazing. Launched last November, sales have being growing in Ireland and Britain. With a worldwide patent, Michelle plans to start selling in the US shortly. The price is €600 including VAT.

Calving sense

Animal Sensors Ltd based at Stradboe, Portlaoise, is launching a new device that will alert farmers when a cow is calving. A sensor is put on the tail of the cow and sends a message via a base station to the farmer when the cow starts contractions. Farmers will get a phone call with a recorded message around one hour before the calf is due to be born, giving them time to check and intervene if necessary. The inventor of the system, Lisa English of Animal Sensors Ltd, said that for a 100-cow herd a farmer would buy a base station and five sensors for €1,500 plus VAT, which includes installation.

Mart prices on app

E-marts is an app and website developed by Marie Costello to show farmers the latest sale prices of animals at marts across the county. Farmers can also book in cattle though the system and get their lot number for the sale. Marie, based at Maheramore, Moate, Co Westmeath, said she got good feedback on the product at Tullamore Show. She will launch the service at the Ploughing. Marie has been testing the service in Ballinasloe and Tullamore and has talked to other marts which she plans to have signed up within a few weeks. Farmers are charged a fee of €25 including VAT per annum and Marie plans to provide factory prices and video feeds from marts in the future.

Moocall calving sensor

Moocall is a calving sensor that works out in the field as well as indoors – it will be launched at the Ploughing. Farmers simply attach the device to the cow’s tail and synch it to their mobile phone. When the cow is one hour away from calving, the farmer receives a text, giving them time to check the cow. The device can easily be switched from one cow to another. It has a rechargeable battery that has to be charged about once a month. “It is proving ideal for full-time farmers during the busy spring especially at night and also for late calvers where many get caught out. Farmers with cows calving who work off-farm also love it. The farmers that we trialled the product with just don’t want to give it back,” says Niall Austin, the Tipperary farmer who developed the product. Moocall is offering a year’s free texting and software worth €250 to farmers who buy one at the Ploughing.

Health monitoring

BoviMinder is a herd health system that monitors your herd 24 hours a day. Gavico, which developed the Boviminder, was established by Albert Moylan, part-time farmer/software specialist based in Boston, Tubber, Co Clare.

Using an ear tag that measures the animal’s temperature every 15 minutes, the system alerts farmers immediately to a rise, or fall in an individual animal’s temperature. Animal body temperature can be used to identify sickness before it becomes obvious. This allows farmers to treat stock sooner, a real benefit for beef finishers as well as suckler farmers. A rise in temperature can identify when a cow is due to calve. Monitoring temperature with BoviMinder comes into its own after calving. It can be used to pick up common illnesses such as mastitis, grass tetany and milk fever.

BoviMinder can be also be used to detect if cows and heifers are in heat, helping to get the herd in calf sooner. It alerts farmers to a change in temperature via their phone, laptop or computer. It also helps to identify the potential reason for that change in temperature.

Herd watching with FRS

Herdwatch was launched by the Farm Relief Services (FRS) last February. The system allows people to synch their phone to show all animals on the Department database and they can register calves and weights and also record the treatments they give any animals, all on the mobile phone, laptop or PC.

“Herdwatch can do away with the blue book completely,” says Fabien Peyaud. “Records are all backed up on the cloud so will not be lost.”

The Herdwatch system allows records to be viewed or printed off by the farmers in advance of an inspection. Farmers can also record breeding and pregnancy scan results that are automatically integrated with the ICBF database.

The service costs €99 incl. VAT for 12 months.

Liver fluke monitor

BovAlert is a novel device for on-farm liver fluke diagnosis in dairy animals, developed by researchers from the MiCRA Centre in Institute of Technology, Tallaght, Dublin. It is an electrochemical device which tests the milk of animal herds for liver fluke, providing quick information. The technology consists of a small, lightweight touch pump fluid injector and reagent cartridge that is capable of storing and pumping small volumes of liquid from one location on the cartridge to another. It uses custom-designed reader software to enable data discrimination and verification of vaccinated versus liver fluke infected milk samples.

DIT Hothouse, supporting IT Tallaght, is looking for strategic partners to commercially develop BovAlert and take the technology to market. A patent has been filed on this innovation and the technology.

Wearable technology

Dairymaster, well-known milking equipment manufacturers with success on many world markets and based in Causeway, Tralee, Co Kerry, has entered its MooMonitor+ system. Dairymaster claims the MooMonitor+ brings wearable technology to the farmyard. It is a necklace for cows that measures movement, feeding, rumination and much more using accelerometers from rockets, transmits the results to farmers using cloud computing and is controlled by a simple app on the farmer’s phone or tablet. It is primarily a heat detection device. Dairymaster claims the MooMonitor has been scientifically proven to work both on pasture and where cows are housed. Economic viability of farms depends on minimising the calving interval.

Wood fuel dairy water heater

Wood Energy Solutions based at Donaskeigh, Co Tipperary, has entered its fully automatic wood-fuelled heating unit for dairy farms. Declan Crosse of Wood Energy Solutions said the DairyPod is a self-contained water heater fuelled by sustainable and carbon-neutral wood pellets. It includes a self-cleaning E-Compact wood pellet boiler with an integral fuel store which will hold over 1t of fuel. Hot water generated is stored in a 1,000 litre storage tank contained with the unit.

Declan said the module is designed to be located outdoors where all the hot water required for post-milking cleaning and sanitisation is generated. The functioning and control of the product is also possible by smartphone and internet connectivity. A patent has recently been filed for this product and will be officially launched at the Ploughing.

Cow control

Trevor Gentleman of Gentleman Agri Products based in Ballyheigue, Co Kerry, has developed the Multi-Parlour Restrictor which is a device that fits to the rump rail beside the cow in the milking parlour preventing the sideways movement of a cow/heifer. The device can be safely attached from the milking pit in seconds beside the last cow. Trevor claims that this eliminates the problem of having to temporarily leave the pit to tie a rope beside her to stop her moving. This device can also be used in the case of a full round to replace the chain or rope normally used to restrict the movement of the end cow. Once pushed against the animal, it automatically locks in position when they put pressure against it.