EuroTier daily Top 10
Highlights from the booths to the hallways . . . what's generating buzz and setting the tone. From splashy productions and new product launches to technical concepts for more animal welfare in livestock production.
Innovation Award EuroTier 2018 - One gold award and 25 silver awards
(DLG). An independent expert committee appointed by the DLG (German Agricultural Society) determined the winners of the Innovation Award EuroTier from among 250 approved submissions for product innovations, based on stringent criteria. The Innovation Award EuroTier 2018 in gold or silver has been awarded to a total of 26 product innovations.
The winners of the Innovation Award EuroTier 2018 are:
GOLD MEDAL. Speedy Trough Suction Unit (Meier-Brakenberg), Germany. Optimal feed hygiene is indispensable for animal health and performance in pig farming. Here particular attention must also be paid to the feed troughs, for feed remains in the trough offer an excellent breeding ground for mould and bacteria.
In the past, the remains were generally manually removed from the trough with a bucket and shovel. This manual emptying of the trough is not only cumbersome and in some cases dangerous for the user; feed remains are frequently left in the corners, where they can quickly spoil.
With the Speedy trough cleaner, which is simply connected to the gun of a high-pressure cleaner, feed remains can be removed from troughs in an extremely short time. And it makes no difference whether the feed is wet or dry. The feed sucked out can be caught in a container or drained off into the manure. After emptying, the trough can be cleaned quickly with the washing lance by simply switching over to the cleaning nozzle. This ensures optimum hygiene; the next ration of feed remains fresh longer and is taken up better.
SILVER MEDALS. RUPIOL Sunline (FANON d.o.o.), Croatia
together with GFT - Gesellschaft für Tierernährung mbH. Against the background of increasingly demanding consumer requirements for sustainable milk production, after forgoing the use of GMOs in feed, there is meanwhile a critical focus on the use of palm oil and/or the palm fat products manufactured from it.In particular with regard to ration management in the energy and nutrient deficit for freshly lactating cows from high-performance herds, this reformulation presents milk producers with great challenges. Here the feed supplement Rupiol Sunline can provide protein and energy in the small intestine in rumen-protected form and subsequently can serve as an alternative to the use of palm oil.
For this purpose, a rape expeller treated with a newly developed pressure-hydrothermal process is provided with high-quality rape oil and coated with a specially produced high-melting sunflower oil that ensures rumen protection.
As a result, the process combines nutritional advantages, such as highly digestible nutrients, supply with sulphated amino acids and an outstanding fat quality, with environmental aspects like a reduction of the use of palm fat and GMO soy. The product is already being used and tested on dairy farms.
HeatBox Heat Accumulator (Albert Kerbl), Germany. Two-component adhesives are often used to fasten hoof blocks in hoof care. Their curing speed is, however, highly dependent on the ambient temperature which, in particular at low temperatures in winter, leads to poorer adhesive bonding qualities with a simultaneous increase in the treatment and working times.
Heatbox from Kerbl, which consists of two chambers, the adhesives can now be optimally tempered to a constant 20 °C. The first chamber can hold a complete dosing gun with an adhesive cartridge, while the second chamber holds a replacement cartridge at working temperature.
Through the use of the Heatbox, the adhesive cures more quickly. This considerably shortens the treatment duration and improves the durability of the blocks on the hoof through optimised adhesive bonding quality. The simple but clever idea therefore simplifies hoof block bonding and reduces the stress for the cow through shorter treatment times.
Nuscience has developed a global approach to reduce dependency of pig producers toward antibiotics and Zinc oxide in a context of growing challenges for livestock production. It avoids the detrimental effects of antibiotics and Zinc oxide on the microbiota and vital organs of animals. At the same time this programme provides an economically favourable and technically proven alternative to farmers, simplifies feed mills operations and contributes positively to the image of animal production from the end users’ point of view.
Nuscience has enlarged the approach of nutrition and health concepts by creating the Aim for Zero programme for pigs. 3 synergistic pillars provide personalised weaning solutions to farmers:
Collaboration: The first step consists of gathering information about the current situation in the farm. An online survey containing 30 simple questions about practices and performances of the farm is completed. 3 sections are included about management, health and nutrition and focus on practices known to impact weaning quality. The resulting report helps the farmer to compare its practices with the trends of pig production globally or only for comparable situations (region, weaning age, genetics, etc). This feedback is a major part of the programme. It generates an objective exchange between the farmer and Nuscience specialists.
Expertise: Based on the report, the experts of Nuscience identify, with the farmer or consultants of the farm, levers to increase weaning efficiency and animal performances. Resulting advices can include managerial actions or nutritional recommendations.
Solutions: When necessary, recommendations toward Nuscience solutions are made. Solutions can be specific concepts from Nutrition 4U or products from Health 4U ranges. Vitazero, the new nutritional safety concept, is at the heart of the programme. It creates an exogenous defence shield that protects the weaning pig by killing or capturing bacteria and their toxins, preventing toxins’ contact at gut surface and, finally, keeping the gut barrier optimal.
Sentinel Robot (INATECO), France
The basis for sustainable, healthy, animal friendly husbandry is farm management optimised in all areas. For example, in order to continually and automatically monitor the barn climate and, if necessary, to control ventilation or heating, a broad range of sensors are used, e.g. for temperature, humidity and the CO2 and NH3 content of poultry house. However, the sensors are usually stationary and therefore only detect a local area in poultry houses.
With the Sentinel Robot, Inateco now offers a mobile litter spreading system for poultry houses installed on the ceiling. With visual and thermal sensors, it is able for the first time to specifically spread litter in areas with damp manure.
Due to its low net weight, the Sentinel Robot litter spreading system can usually be installed under existing ceilings without expensive reinforcements. It acts freely within an area of 200 m and is pneumatically supplied with litter materials via a supply hose; these can be shredded material, pellets, chips or meal.
In addition to the visual and thermal sensors important for navigation, additional sensors, e.g. for measuring the CO2 or NH3 content in the poultry house air or even a scale, can be installed on the litter unit. As a result, information is acquired in all areas of the poultry house, making it possible to give farmers even more specific warnings and recommendations for the climate management of their farm and poultry houses.
The Sentinel Robot litter spreading system from Inateco is an innovative further development that enable the reduction of emissions in poultry houses, whereby the required amount of litter is also reduced, as litter is specifically spread only in areas with damp manure. Its further use as a mobile platform for additional measuring sensors enables more specific monitoring of all poultry house areas.
Comfort Safety Self-Locking Headlocks (Ing. Bräuer Stalltechnik), Austria
Ordinary safety self-locking headlocks frequently offer an insufficient safety outlet in the lower area of the feed fence. When attempting to also reach the last remains of the feed provided or when animals have fallen or are unable to get up, they are constricted in the neck area. The noises of moving swinging bars are an additional stress factor.
With the comfort safety self-locking headlock from Bräuer, the horizontal position of the swinging bar mounting and the swinging unit is shifted, resulting in a considerably larger safety outlet over the entire height and an animal-friendly opening width of 36 cm. In addition to unhindered access, this also enables a considerably greater freedom of movement for the cow during feeding and easier freeing of stuck cows by the farmer. In the catch position, a neck width of 21 cm is reached by shifting the swinging bar, enabling safe fixation for animal inspection, treatments and insemination.
Autolift (Spinder Dairy Housing Concepts), The Netherlands. Many processes on dairy farms have already been automated in recent years – with the exception of guided cow traffic. With AutoLift, the Dutch supplier of barn equipment SPINDER B.V. presents a complex, intelligent gate control system that simplifies these tasks.
All major gates along the daily walking paths of the animals to and from the milking parlour are or will be equipped with a drive unit networked for control; sensors detect the current opening position of the gates and manage the switching states on an Internet-capable server. With a related app the employees responsible for cow traffic can survey all opening states of the gates on their smart phones in real time. Then they can control certain gates immediately and individually, or can temporarily change the administration of several gates for certain livestock groups or alter the passage height, e.g. for tractors, without having to be near the gate.
The AutoLift gate control system is individually adapted to the respective dairy farm. All gates can also be directly operated via the drive unit or manually in the case of an accident. With the Internet-based AutoLift gate control system, Spinder B.V. supports the automation of activities that tie up working time, such as the driving of cows to and from the milking parlour on dairy cattle farms.
Feed Fence Signalling (Spinder Dairy Housing Concepts), the Netherlands
Self-locking headlock grids are an opportune aid for many diary cattle farmers for fixing animals in place for a limited time for the purpose of health monitoring, treatments in the course of breeding hygiene and veterinary medicine in livestock groups. This work is carried out by external specialists with increasing frequency, while the barn personnel is busy with other routine tasks.
For example, the feed fence can be closed longer than necessary and the animal remains fixed in place.
With the Feed Fence Signalling, SPINDER B.V. has put a clever solution for electronic monitoring of the closing mechanism of feed fences on the market.
If the locking lever of the self-locking headlock fences is set to the "fixing" position by the herd manager, a network-capable sensor registers this action and transmits this switching state to an Internet-capable server via a close-range wireless network. This server monitors the passing time of the unchanged locking state on the feed fences and alerts the barn personnel according to individually administrable, cascaded levels by switching on a warning lamp, an acoustic signal and with an instant message on the heard manager's smart phone.
Via a special app, heard managers can view the status messages of the feed fence in real time and, if necessary, temporarily administrate the monitoring and alerting mode or give their employees instructions on releasing the feed fence fixation.
With Feed Fence Signalling, Spinder offers the farmer an intelligent means of assistance based on the IoT standard for process monitoring.
NANOConcept (Wasserbauer Fütterungssysteme), AustriaIn recent years automation in feeding technology has considerably increased.
However, the simplifications in the workflow have also given rise to new problems, which primarily concern silo removal, delivery of additional feed for stationary mixers and feed hygiene, especially with regard to remaining quantities in the system.
With the "NANO" feeding concept, Wasserbauer has developed an autonomous feeding system for cattle. It consists of the Shuttle Eco manoeuvrable, automatically moving feeding robot and the new, unique lift for fully automatic feed removal in the bunker silo. The feeding robot moves freely and is routed via magnets in the ground. As a result, it can easily be used in several barns and can move to several silos. In the silo the Shuttle Eco feeding robot is filled with the direct, fully automatic lift, an intelligent system comprising a milling and a blower unit.
With the combination of the "Shuttle Eco" autonomously moving feeding robot and the "Lift" fully automatic silo removal system, Wasserbauer has achieved a new level of feeding automation.
smaXtec 360 (smaXtec animal care), Austria. smaXtec 360 is a major further development of the rumen bolus already commended in 2010 with a wireless pH and temperature probe from smaXtec animal care GmbH of Graz, Austria.
With smaXtec 360 the company banks on the exclusive use of innovative and robust microprocessors with acceleration and temperature sensors for almost life-long progress monitoring of physiologic behavioural patterns of feed and water consumption, of rumination, rumen motility, movement activity as well as the heart rate of the carrier animal. Via an energy-saving short-range wireless network, the data are automatically read out, processed cloud-based and provided to farmers on their Internet-capable assistance systems for health monitoring and herd management. The intelligently combined parameter evaluation of the acceleration sensor enables fast recognition of physiologic malfunctions of the carrier animal even before the manifestation of illnesses.
As a result, it is possible to dispense with direct measurement of the pH.
Due to the completely revised operating principle, the smaXtec 360-Bolus positioned in the reticulum has a service life of at least 4 years and can therefore help farmers to manage their cows through their lactations more quickly and in better health.
All-In-One Colostrum Feeder (Martin Förster), Germany. A fast supply of colostrum (first milk) following birth may be the most important step in the life of a cow, as the calves are provided with antibodies against most illnesses typical in barns via the first milk. In practice a number of temporary measures exist for the often tedious tempering of previously refrigerated or frozen colostrum. Nevertheless, more than a few calves refuse to suckle in the critical first hour, as the first milk has already cooled down too greatly during feeding.
The All-In-One Colostrum Feeder from Martin Förster GmbH now combines major innovative developments for the initial provision of newborn calves with first milk.
The innovative basic unit consisting of a special hexagonal container is equipped with a lid with a handle and a teat for drinking. The special innovation is an additional container lid with an integrated stainless-steel tube which is immersed in the container. This device enables fresh first milk to be brought up to the optimal drinking temperature quickly but gently by flushing with tempered water. And pasteurising of the first milk and subsequent cooling of the drinker to the desired temperature is possible according to preference with this device. A central innovative special feature of the All-In-One Colostrum Feeder is the possibility of freezing the container equipped with the described stainless-steel spiral tube in a space-saving manner for colostrum storage in order to gently and simply thaw the drinker as required. The system from Martin Förster GmbH solves various problems which occur during first milk preparation for calves in a simple, but above all for the colostrum an extremely gentle manner.