What is the VistaMilk SFI Research Centre?

VistaMilk is a new €40m research centre hosted by Teagasc Moorepark. The centre is a collaboration between industry and research institutes, including Tyndall National Institute, Ireland’s national microelectronics institute, ICBF, the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) at Waterford IT and the Insight Centre for Data Analytics (at UCD, NUIG, DCU). The centre is co-funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Department of Agriculture to the tune of €27m along with a further €13m in funding from private companies in the agri-food and information communications technology (ICT) sectors.

What is the aim of VistaMilk?

Put simply, the aim of the research is to digitalise the dairy supply chain all the way from the soil to the consumer. The vision of the centre is to be an agent of growth for the Irish dairy and agtech industry by being a world leader in fundamental and translational research for precision pasture-based dairying. The outputs of the centre are human capital, intellectual property, potential spin-out companies and, of course, scientifically excellent publications.

What private companies are involved?

We’re working with 43 companies, which range from multinational food companies, dairy processors, and animal nutrition companies to agri-tech startups, ICT companies and even animal and grass breeding companies. There is a huge interest in what we’re doing from right across the food and technology sectors.

What progress have you made?

VistaMilk is just over a year old and we’re in the final stages of signing legal agreements with the commercial companies we’re working with. Over the next three months we’ll ramp up the hiring of PhDs and post-doctorates to begin different areas of industry-led research. We’ve already started research work on mastitis sensors, methane emissions and improved grass growth predictions. Developing the dairy beef index has also been part of our work.

Last week VistaMilk held a masterclass on A2 milk. Why?

We decided to hold this masterclass because there’s been a huge interest from different actors across the Irish dairy industry in A2 milk (a type of cow’s milk that does not contain the A1 beta casein protein and currently sells for twice the price of regular milk in Australia). The conclusion from our masterclass is that the scientific evidence is weak that A1 milk can be linked to increased risk of illnesses such as type 1 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, alterations of the digestive functions, and autism or schizophrenia. The masterclass also heard that the A2 milk variant has been associated with better yields on milk fat and protein yield. However, the A2 milk variant is associated with reduced k-casein content which can have significant repercussions on the renneting characteristics of milk and how it can be processed.

Could Ireland migrate to an A2 milk herd?

It would be very “simple” to create an A2 milk herd in Ireland. We would simply need to genotype dairy cows to identify which cows produce A2 milk and cull the rest. However, only about 40% of the cows in Ireland produce A2 milk today meaning we would have to cull 60% of our dairy herd to create an A2 milk pool! Instead, there’s probably a niche for a small number of farmers to create an A2 milk pool to target a niche market, especially those that operate several herds.

Profile

Name: Prof Donagh Berry.

Title: Director of the VistaMilk SFI Research Centre.

Location: Teagasc, Moorepark.

Funding: €40m.