Cows to wear hi-tech tracker devices on Kildare farm

Agriculture Minster Simon Coveney will open a new €2.3m facility in Co Kildare tomorrow.

Co Kerry-based Dairymaster has provided the technology to help power UCD’s new dairy research facility in Newcastle.

The MooMonitor+ device, which tracks cow fertility, will be worn by all 200 cows on the UCD dairy farm, recording more than three million data points on each animal every day.

This information is transmitted regularly to the farmers’ smartphones.

In addition, its Swiftflow Commander device, described as an iPad for cows, will be used on the UCD farm to process 90 million instructions per second from the milking parlour.

This allows farmers to manage their herd and milk output more efficiently and to increase milk yields.

UCD students of agriculture, veterinary sciences, food production and related sciences will use the farm to investigate innovative models of milk production.

The research farm will also provide IDA Ireland with a venue to showcase technologies provided by Irish companies in the booming global agri-food sector. Major industry

Dairy is a major industry for Ireland, with exports valued at €3.24 billion in 2015. Irish dairy production is expected to increase by 50 per cent to more than 7.5 billion litres by 2020.