The National Ploughing Association Innovation Arena is the perfect place to launch new innovations and this year, Irish Farmers Journal readers can vote for their favourite innovation in the People’s Choice category.

The NPA Innovation Arena puts inventions from Ireland on show to the world and helps establish their success by introducing them to the marketplace and facilitating networks that will help them take steps towards achieving commercial success.

In the build-up to this year’s Ploughing Championships, each day we profile four of the innovators.

Dairymaster

Swift Cool App is the newest stage in the evolution of Dairymaster’s energy-saving milk-cooling range.

The app works in tandem with CoolControl tanks and has the power to give real-time information about the status of the tank. The dashboard of the two-way app gives visual, easy-to-read updates of what is going on with the tank.

Dangan Feed Company

The Dangan Meal & Nut Dispenser system was created to cater for a problem on the farm – mainly replacing the old feeders in the existing 35-unit milking herring bow parlour.

The promoter wanted a feeding system to allow a consistent amount of feed to be fed to each row of cows as they entered the parlour.

By running one feed hopper on each row, and running it on rails, the system reduced the cost of installing feeders for every cow. The system was further enhanced by taking it to an outdoor feeder that is solar powered.

DeadDock Ltd

DeadDock provides a service to dairy farmers that controls the weeds on their farms and especially docks.

The innovation is to apply herbicide to the leaves of weeds in grassland and not on to the grass or the clover. The innovation uses vision technology to detect the weeds in the crop of grass and then pours the herbicide on to the leaf of the weed and leaves the grass and the clover to grow without any harmful effects from the herbicide.

DIT Hothouse

The Slurry Solver retrofit technology for slatted units is a floating membrane structure which is inserted into existing slatted units and is semi-submerged in the slurry.

This converts the slurry tank into a long-term anaerobic digester. Slurry can pass from top to bottom while catching biogas as it rises up from the bottom of the tank.

The floating membrane is modular in nature so that it can accommodate any tank size and is designed so as not to interfere with the current operations of a slurry tank.

Voting

The competition takes place over the three days of the National Ploughing Championships from 19 to 21 September and the winner will be announced on the final day.

To take part in the voting, click here.

Read more

Innovation Arena profiles: round bale handling and cashflow solutions

Innovation Arena profiles: self-propelled diet feeders and crop yield sensors