Precision mineral delivery with Terra Nutritech

Supplementing minerals in the diet of animals is an essential task on most livestock farms.

One of the simplest and most effective methods of feeding vitamins and minerals to livestock is via the water system.

However, delivering liquid minerals via water systems using traditional technology proved challenging, with low accuracy. The demand for a modern, high-precision, automated mineral dispenser led Padraig Hennessy, CEO of Terra Nutritech, to begin his journey.

As part of our Enterprise Ireland Innovation series, the Irish Farmers Journal recently sat down with Padraig to discuss the development of his business and his future plans.

Origin

The origins of the company began when Padraig started to work at his brother’s company, Terra Services, during the economic downturn. Terra Services, which is run by Tom Hennessy, designs and installs water systems on farms.

Around 2010, they began receiving questions from customers on options to include liquid mineral supplements in the water systems. From there, they looked for existing products on the market which they could distribute.

“We knew we needed something which was automated, easy to use and could automatically react to changing weather conditions and water consumption in Ireland,” explains Padraig.

He says that they were able to find a product with two out of those three features, which they began to sell in 2013. This was really a means of testing the market to ensure that there was the demand for such a system. After seeing a quick uptake, Padraig and Tom founded Terra Nutritech and began to roll out the system in Ireland.

Padraig explains that a lot of customers were asking if there was an app which could connect to the system. “The system we were using was in no way capable of doing that as it was nearly 15-year-old technology,” he explains.

From there, they started developing a new product, one which was capable of performing all three features.

The development process was challenging, time-consuming and expensive and at one stage they had to go back to the drawing board entirely in terms of design. In fact, Padraig had to create an entirely new position in the company, a chief technology officer, to help with the development process and head up the technical end.

As with any new product development process, months were spent on testing and refining the product and the software.

This was vital as the wrong dose of a mineral could have adverse impacts on the health of the animal.

The end result was the OPIS Controller, an automated mineral dosing system which integrates into a shed’s water supply. The system allows farmers to dose up to six liquid mineral blends via the water supply, for up to three separate animal groups at the same time.

The OPIS Controller can be installed indoors or outdoors and is connected to a water meter, which monitors how much water is being consumed by the herd, allowing the farmer to increase or decrease the concentration of the minerals being dosed.

All of the data is accessible through an app and stored on the cloud.

The Local Enterprise Office and Enterprise Ireland were a vital source of support when developing the product, explains Padraig, having availed of expansion grants, R&D grants, GradStart grants, market discovery grants and mentoring and training from the organisation.

“We worked across a number of areas of Enterprise Ireland. We try to avail of them as much as possible as we believe they are a fantastic resource,” he says.

Shortly after the system was launched, COVID-19 hit and that restricted sales, says Padraig. Since then, however, sales have taken off and, in 2022 alone, the company grew by 40%.

The company soon spotted the need for another product, one which could work independently of a mains connection, both on and off farm.

Again, he looked at what portable systems were available on the market but found that none of them could dose accurately.

Over a three-year development process, they explored many different iterations of how a system could work.

The end product was the OrbVie portable system which is a refillable, battery-powered, self-contained sealed mineral dispenser that has no leads or wires.

The dispenser contains a long-life rechargeable battery (one charge lasts at least months). This is dropped into a single water trough releasing the liquid mineral blend into the drinking water. It is suitable for use in fields or in sheds via the in-line model.

The OrbVie follows a preprogramed water consumption pattern, which determines the mineral dosage rates and timing. Padraig explains that the water consumption pattern was based on data collected from the OPIS Controller over the years. “For example, I know a dairy cow on average will drink about 5% of her water between 2pm and 3pm, so the OrbVie releases 5% of her mineral product between 2pm and 3pm,” explains Padraig.

The system is patented and recently picked up the Established Animal Health Award at this year’s Innovation Arena Awards.

As well as Ireland, the two systems are operational in Switzerland, Romania, Germany, the Czech Republic and France. The OrbVie mobile costs €650 plus VAT, while the inline version costs €975 plus VAT. The OPIS Controller works off a leasing model for between €300 and €500 per annum, plus a one-off installation fee and VAT.

Terra Nutritech also supplies 15 different mineral formulations to the market as well as custom blends for individual customers. It first explored manufacturing minerals after the 2016 Brexit vote, having previously imported them from the UK. Manufacturing the minerals on site was a steep learning curve, Padraig explains, with a lot of trial-and-error formations. The company now orders in the minerals in dry format and blends them on site to customer and product requirements.