Dairymaster’s Swiftflo Commander took the top gong at the National Ploughing Championships’ Innovation Awards, with a dozen companies sharing the overall the €65,000 prize.
Showcased today at the innovation arena in the Laois site, the Awards – a combined effort by Enterprise Ireland, the National Ploughing Association and The Farmers Journal – saw a total of 170 entries.
That was double the number from last year, with Swiftflo Commander netting a total of €15,000 for first place.
An aide for dairy farming, the Swiftflo Commander is an entire processing system installed throughout the milking facility, with a fairly impressive series of displays showing things like milk yield, milking time and somatic cell count data on each cow.
“Each year the Innovation Arena is going from strength to strength,” said Enterprise Ireland’s Denis Duggan.
“This is a clear indication of the level of innovation across the agri sector. Enterprise Ireland looks forward to working with the award winners as they grow and develop their businesses.”
The full list of winners announced today:
- Dairymaster’s Swiftflo Commander – Overall winner
- Cross Agri Engineering – Agri Engineering Award winner in established company category
- Malone Engineering – Agri Engineering Special Merit Award winner in established company category
- Acres Machinery – Agri Engineering Award winner in start-up company category
- Reproinfo – Animal Health Award winner in established company category
- Hydrasure – Animal Health Award winner in start-up company category
- Remoquip – Safety Award winner in established company category
- Inspect 4 Hoof Trimming – Safety Award winner in start-up company category
- Dairymaster – Software Award winner in established company category
- DIT Hothouse – Software Award Special Merit winner in established company category
- True North Technologies – Software Award winner in start-up company category
- AgManor – Software Award Special Merit winner in start-up company category
From left to right: Michael Kiely from Dairymaster, Enterprise Ireland’s Julie Sinnamon, Minister Richard Bruton, Edmund Harty from Dairymaster, Anna May McHugh, CEO National Ploughing Association, Michael Ryan from Dairymaster and Irish Farmers Journal’s Justin McCarthy, image via Lensmen
Main image via Shutterstock
