New technology that can help dairy farmers become more sustainable is being launched at the EuroTier livestock equipment trade fair this November.
Held from November 12 to 15 in Hanover, Germany, the event showcases the most important innovations, products and services for the livestock sector.
A total of 120,000 visitors are expected to attend the event, which sees over 2,100 exhibitors from 52 countries promoting their wares.
Below are the top five new products that have won innovation medals ahead of the show.
Gold Medal winners at EuroTier
Cow-Welfare: Flex Air Stall
Danish company Cow-Welfare has launched its new Flex Air Stall, which is an air supply system integrated into its already popular Flex Stall range of cubicles.
Fresh outdoor air is sucked into the animal housing via a hose ventilation system and forwarded into the cubicles under pressure.
The fresh air is then forced directly into the lying area at an angle of 45° from five openings drilled in the upper cubicle bar.
This creates an ambient ventilated area for the cows to lie in comfortably, while reducing heat stress, and increasing productivity. This innovation also won the EuroTier Animal Welfare Award 2024.
Forster-Technik: CalfGPT
CalfGPT is a new management tool that allows farmers to check on the health status of individual calves by using simple voice commands.
Based on the leading AI [artifical intelligence) system from OpenAI, the system enables the farmer to enquire about individual calves using a voice connection via the farm’s own WiFi.
The farmer can receive specific information about the calves vocally and via alarms on a mobile phone or tablet in direct response.
Pre-formulated commands are not necessary and new information concerning individual calves can also be sent directly and verbally to CalfGPT for further documentation.
The system gathers the data from the company’s range of calf feeders, to which it can be connected via Bluetooth.
Silver Medals
Spinder: Spinder Track
Dutch company Spinder Dairy Housing Concepts won silver for its Spinder Track sliding gate system which can easily change the space available to cows in a barn.
The usable housing area in the barn can be adapted to the corresponding number of cattle at any time by means of a gate that runs on rails.
The system is designed so that it can be operated and locked in the desired position by one person. Animals or people can pass through an integrated sliding gate at any time.
Spinder says the new gate can be installed in newly constructed barns and retrofitted in existing barns. It can be adapted to the respective specifications of the barn.
Kraiburg: espaFLEX
Kraiburg has developed the espaFLEX rubber matting for slatted floors that helps reduce ammonia levels produced when animal faeces and urine is not separated.
This mat stands out due to its special corrugated profile with a three percent gradient structure transverse to the walking direction.
The gradient enables urine to flow rapidly through the slots, therefore resulting in a floor that dries quickly.
The improved dryness of the floor surface ensures drier hooves which boosts hoof health. Thanks to the special design, cleaning robots can continue to work on the mats without any issues.
Urban: Sip Control
Urban SipControl is a system for determining the welfare of suckling calves at automatic feeders by recording the animal’s sucking strength and the individual swallowing processes.
It uses a high-resolution, inductive flow sensor to scan the pulsating volumetric flow that occurs in the suction line of suckling calves at microsecond intervals.
During the drinking process, the number of swallows, the volume consumed per swallow and the calf’s sucking strength are recorded and evaluated with high precision. The length of the suckling process can be adapted to the individual animal as required.
Deviations from the animals’ individual sucking patterns can be used for predictive health monitoring.
