If you get in a car today and drive through Ireland’s dairy heartlands – be it Cork, Kilkenny or Tipperary – you will see herds of content dairy cows striding through lush green fields with their heads bowed as they graze on the country’s protein-rich grasslands.

It’s a familiar and natural sight, and one that has allowed Ireland’s dairy industry to build the iconic Kerrygold brand on the back of it.

Consumers the world over, but particularly in Germany and the US, love the idea of Ireland’s grass-based dairy system and the natural butter we produce from that milk.

The process of dairy cows turning inedible cellulose such as grass into nutrient-dense proteins which humans can eat such as milk, butter and cheese is one that has stood the test of time because it is incredibly natural and straightforward.

Yet, for all its simplicity, the technology available to dairy farmers has never been more advanced.

If you look closer at those fields of dairy cows in Cork, Kilkenny or Tipperary, you may see the odd herd wearing collars or some other type of electronic equipment.

Established

HerdInsights is an agri-tech company that designs such smart devices for cows.

Founded in 2010, the company has developed a “smart collar” technology for dairy cows that improves heat detection in cows and reduces healthcare costs through early illness detection.

HerdInsights cloud-based smart collars detect oestrus (heat) in cows by monitoring the cows’ activity such as mounting and chin-resting behaviours, and also monitors cow health status by recording rumination, feeding and lying behaviour.

Like an Apple watch or any smart watch for humans, these collars are designed to collect data from the animal that can help the farmer make better management decisions for their herd of cows.

According to Brian Mulcahy, chief executive of HerdInsights, there are 270m dairy cows in the world today with roughly 80m of these cows wearing some form of electronic collar, whether that’s a simple product to activate feed systems in the milking parlour or a pedometer for the cow.

In Germany, for instance, roughly 80% of all the dairy cows in the country are wearing some form of a smart collar

However, up to five million cows around the world wear collars that can detect heat and monitor health.

“The adoption rate of smart collars on dairy farms varies hugely, depending on the country you’re looking at,” says Mulcahy.

“In Germany, for instance, roughly 80% of all the dairy cows in the country are wearing some form of a smart collar.

"In New Zealand where there are 4m dairy cows and Australia where there are 1.6m dairy cows, between 20% and 30% of cows wear some form of a smart collar. In the US, you will see smart collars on dairy cows in one out of every 10 herds,” he adds.

In comparison, adoption rates of smart collar technology are very low.

“In Ireland, there are 1.4m dairy cows, but less than 100,000 cows are wearing smart collars.

"The adoption rate is still in single-digit figures here despite the benefits the technology can provide to farmers,” says Mulcahy.

One of the biggest reasons adoption rates of smart collars are so low in Ireland is simply competition for capital on farms.

The continued expansion of Ireland’s dairy sector, since the end of milk quotas in 2015, has forced farmers to invest significantly inside the farm gate in larger bulk tanks, new milk parlour systems, increased wintering and slurry capacity as well as greater feed storage.

According to Mulcahy, these are all “must-have” investments for the expanding dairy farmer whereas smart collars are seen as a “nice to have” technology.

Testing ground

Despite the low adoption rates, Ireland has fine-tuned an excellent testing ground for HerdInsights to develop its technology, says Padraig Lynch, the company’s director of product and business development.

“We purposely finetuned our technology in Ireland as heat and illness detection is a lot harder on a grass-based system than it is in a confined system.

"You’ve got so many variables such as weather, distance and climate in a grass-based system, so we knew if we could crack the technology on the pasture system we could take it all over the world,” says Lynch.

In 2017, HerdInsight invested in its management team along with other resources.

It began its international sales programme and has been quick to develop its target export markets.

At present, HerdInsights smart collars are installed on dairy farms in 10 countries around the world, including the UK, the US, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

A number of large-scale dairy farms in South America have also installed the technology, mainly to monitor herd health.

The company has also partnered with Waikato Milking Systems, the New Zealand milking parlour manufacturer with operations all over the world, to make white-label (own-label) smart collars for them.

The US dairy industry is going through a very difficult period right now

This partnership has largely driven the company’s growth in the US market but Lynch believes opportunities are there to target their branded smart collar system at smaller-scale family farms in certain parts of America.

However, the US dairy industry is going through a very difficult period right now, with farmgate milk prices rooted to the floor. In parts of the Midwest, hundreds of farmers have left dairying behind them in the last year.

Business is tough in the US dairy sector but HerdInsights is making headway in other parts of the world.

In the last year, the company has installed its smart collar systems on 10 dairy farms in Germany, which is the largest dairy-producing member of the EU, pumping out over 31bn litres last year.

According to Brian Mulcahy, Germany is a hugely competitive market but the company now has a toehold in the market it can build on.

Competitive

“With 80% of all the cows in Germany wearing some form of an electronic collar, it is obviously a very competitive marketplace,” says Mulcahy.

“However, the response so far from German farmers has been very positive. They love the simplicity and ease of use of HerdInsights technology.

"Our system is very icon-rich so it’s easier to overcome language barriers,” he adds.

Since it launched its first commercial product, the HerdInsights team has worked closely with Enterprise Ireland to grow the business.

Agri-tech is a really interesting and growing sector right now

Through Enterprise Ireland’s pathfinder programme, the company was able to carry out targeted market research for the German market, while also working with the state agency’s German office to develop routes to market in Germany.

“Enterprise Ireland has been with us every step of the way,” says Mulcahy.

“Agri-tech is a really interesting and growing sector right now. Last year, we attended the Eurotier trade show in Germany as part of Enterprise Ireland’s stand.

"Eurotier is the single largest agricultural trade show in Europe and it allowed us to get in front of German customers,” he adds.

HerdInsights has since employed a full-time sales development manager in Germany to try to further develop the market.

It will take time but the company has built its bridgehead into an enormous dairy sector where technology adoption on farms is world-leading.

Could the Germans develop a love for Irish agri-tech similar to their love of Kerrygold? Time will tell.