Best in show at hi-tech parade

INNOVATION: This year’s entries were some of the strongest yet, say event organisers

New technologies to help producers and growers improve productivity, lower costs and help with management decisions were recognised with awards at the LAMMA show.

Products were assessed for innovative solutions including design, practical impact, the product’s sustainability and impact on the environment. The organisers said that this year’s clutch featured some of the strongest entries yet seen in the competition.

Among three silver award winners was the film-on-film technique developed by Kuhn, which promises increased milk yield from baled forage. This involves applying pre-stretched silage bale wrap rather than net around the circumference of bales before it is wrapped in the same stretch film.

The system is available on Kuhn’s i-BIO+ integrated round baler-wrapper and the FBP 3135 BalePack round balerwrapper combination and is said to result in a more tightly-wrapped bale with more oxygen excluded.

Two 750mm pre-stretch dispensers are mounted ahead of the net roll at the front of the BalePack, positioned so that the film overlaps to form a full-width covering; the same material is dispensed by the orbital arms of the wrapping section.

On other baler-wrappers offering film binding in place of net, two products are used – 1.2m-wide film applied around the bale circumference and 750mm stretch film for wrapping.

A new milking cluster with a liner said to reduce teat damage received the Livestock Innovation Gold award by the judges. The ActivPuls cluster is designed to help eliminate teat-end damage (hyperkeratosis) through the design of the liner, featuring seven asymmetrical massage zones, which are angled at the bottom end to automatically relieve vacuum and so reduce pressure on the end of the teat.

A world first is claimed for the Jupiter F mattress for cow cubicles because of its moulded brisket board at the front and pillows on two sides. Easyfix, its manufacturer in Ireland, says the mouldings ensure that cows lie in the optimum position in the cubicle, while a 45mm layer of PU latex foam creates a cushioned top surface with around 33m deflection for comfort.

Another silver award went to German manufacturer Huesker for the Agritec Silage Safe clamp covering system, which is designed to make sealing a clamp more effective.

The mesh fabric is installed in strips along the clamp walls with the plastic sheeting then put in place as usual so that both materials wrap around the forage from floor level, up the walls and across the top of the consolidated heap once the clamp has been filled.

The Agritec material is then secured by tensioning belts and ratchets to obtain a tight seal.

The new ActivPuls cluster is designed to help eliminate teat-end damage.