Masters of the moo-niverse
Dairymaster is outstanding in its field — matching tech with cows, writes Majella O’Sullivan
ACONVERSATION sparked by an article in an inflight magazine was the start of the development of a device that would monitor the health and fertility of cows.
The subject was the technology that was used for rockets and torpedoes when they lost their GPS signal, using inertia signals.
That whole technology has since been developed and is widely used for contactless payments but on that flight to Canada many years ago it set Dr Edmond Harty of Dairymaster thinking, ‘we could use this for cows’.
“It’s about having the knowledge and the know-how in the area you’re looking at and we knew cows behaved differently when they were in heat so the question was, ‘how can we measure that?’” he said.
“After that, it was a matter of joining those dots. That whole technology was developed for contactless payments. We just happen to be using it as a means of making the job easy for the Moo Monitor.”
The health and fertility monitoring device is one of five core products developed by Dairymaster in its objective of making dairy farming more profitable, enjoyable and sustainable.
The company’s product range focuses on the key areas of milking equipment, automated feeding systems, manure scrapers, milk cooling tanks and, of course, the Moo Monitor, that have all come from concept to manufacture at the company’s Co Kerry headquarters that employs around 350 people from a range of academic backgrounds. Headquarters
The HQ of what is now considered a world leader is Causeway, a small village just over 25km from Tralee.
Dubbed Ireland’s ‘Silicone Valley for cows’, like the Californian home to global technology companies, Dairymaster too offers high-skill career opportunities across a range of disciplines for college graduates.
The products are ever evolving with more being devised to achieve and maintain Dairymaster’s aim of being the best.
Everything is done in-house, from concept development to manufacturing, handled from its 11ac campus, encompassing electronics, mechanical engineering, software and mobile app development, sales and marketing.
Each department talks to each other, uninhibited by constraints like time zones or language barriers.
“It’s very unusual in any industry, not to mind in agriculture, to see them under one roof,” says Dr Harty, chief executive of the company that was founded by his father, Ned, in 1968.
“We took the view, and part of it initially was out of necessity, that if you wanted to develop something new, you had to do it yourself.
“We built a capability around different areas and that was very important because the more you do, the more you can do.”
It exports to around 40 countries but its main markets are Ireland, the UK, the USA, Germany, Holland, Australia, New Zealand and Russia, the main dairy countries.
It also has a lot of activity in China and Japan.
Dr Harty and Dairymaster have collected numerous awards along the way, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, a Euro Tier Innovation gold medal, a World Dairy Expo Innovation Award (USA) and a couple of Ploughing Innovation Awards.
Dr Harty is reluctant to discuss turnover.
“The reality is that our two biggest competitors globally are about 10 times our size and I would say we compete very well with them and a big part of how we compete is back to two reasons; people and performance,” he says.
“Our aim is not to be the biggest but it is very clearly to be the best and that the customers we have out there are satisfied.”
And in Dairymaster it’s all about cows and a respect for their customer, the dairy farmer. The vast majority of its customers are family farms.
The middle child in a family of three, Dr Harty grew up in Causeway and now lives about eight minutes away in Ballyheigue. His younger brother, John, is involved in the production and operations end of the business, and they also have an older sister.
“I suppose it was a bit like anyone growing up in a family business, even though ours was an unusual one, but I was interested in it,” he recalls.“When I was going to school, I couldn’t wait to get rid of the school bag and I was out with the screwdriver.
“Having an interest in something is the main thing because I think you have to be doing something you like and enjoy.”
He describes his father Ned as someone who is very easy to get on with and who let them pursue their own paths.
The younger Edmond was always interested in both mechanical and electronic engineering but did his B Eng in Mechanical Engineering at UL, followed by a PhD in Agricultural and Food Engineering at UCD in the area of milking performance.
He also completed a year at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
The workforce at Dairymaster is from a wide range of disciplines and includes three people with PhDs, a good share with a Master’s Degree, the vast majority hold a degree of some sort and more hold certificates or diplomas in their fields. Some of the workforce was hired straight from school.
“Education is no load to anyone but the most important thing is their attitude and outlook,” he adds.
“It’s like putting a team on a pitch. You have different people with different skills but how they operate and how they work together is what makes that team win more games.
“Any business is like that. It’s down to the people. If you want to develop your skills, you need the right culture and the right mindset in an organisation to do that and that depends on the people who come in as well.”
These skill sets include people with a background in electronics, mechanical and civil engineering, software development, design, photography, videography, marketing, and languages, all collaborating under one roof.
The total workforce based at its Causeway headquarters is just under 350, with an additional 20 plus at its bases in Worcester, UK and Cincinnati, USA, mainly in the sales, support and dealer network management end of things. Relationships
The company works closely with IT Tralee and also has very good relationships with UCD and UL.
The company’s underlying philosophy is that the technology has to be easy to use.
“If it’s not easy to use a product, you won’t use it. And that can come down to the look and shape of a thing. Also, it has to be easy to hold in your hand.
“You can have the greatest and the best science inside of it but it’s no good if you have to have read 27 manuals to operate it. That’s no good and people won’t do that,” he says.
Neither is Dairymaster’s rural location a hindrance to attracting the best candidates, many of whom are from the area but now have the opportunity of getting a high-skilled job in their discipline close to home.
Dairymaster’s focus is always on developments in technology and how these can be utilised for the dairy industry.
“It’s an industry that’s changing and farmers are probably very quick to adopt something if they see it will make a difference,” Dr Harty adds.
And that’s what makes it an exciting environment to work in.
“If you have people and they get a buzz about what they’re doing and are excited because they’re making a difference and that is the environment we have,” Dr Harty adds.
But it’s only when they get customer feedback and hear what they think that they realise they are making a difference.