The prize which includes €140,000 in advertising, professional mentorship and office space at The Irish Times was awarded to Herdwatch on announcement of the win. The Tipperary-based start-up launched its farming app in 2014 and has since developed a customer base of almost 1,000 farmers.

Described as a digital livestock management system, the app offers potential time-savings of up to four hours a week and easy compliance with Bord Bia and EU animal remedy regulations, among other features, for less than €2 a week.

Herdwatch co-founder and Farm Relief Services IT manager Fabien Peyaud said the competition was "very tough" and that it is an "amazing achievement for the team to be crowned top start-up out of 300 [initial applicants]. We are extremely grateful to AIB and the other partners for this recognition, and will continue to ‘fly the flag’ for Irish Agri Tech.”

The team behind Herdwatch have recently launched version two of the app, which allows farmers to apply for cattle movement certs directly from their smartphone or tablet.

Peter Byrne, CEO of Farm Relief Services which helped to found Herdwatch through the backing of its research and development, said, “We are very proud of our FRS IT Manager, Fabien, and his Herdwatch team who have developed this innovative solution that brings real every day benefits to farmers. It is a perfect complement to FRS’s suite of services to farmers.”

Farmers interested in finding out more about the app can visit www.herdwatch.ie, email info@herdwatch.ie or contact their local FRS (Farm Relief Services) co-op (list on www.frsnetwork.ie).