JFC MANUFACTURING:WITH THE ENDING of the current EU Milk Quota regime in 2015, there is a significant opportunity for Irish and European dairy farmers to increase output. Galway-based JFC Manufacturing has identified the conditions that contribute to maximum performance for dairy cows and designed the JFC Deluxe Cow Cubicle as a result.
Dairy cows need comfortable conditions in order to maximise performance. The choice of cow cubicle is vital to optimise herd health, achieve maximum milk yield and, ultimately, increase farm profitability. The JFC cubicle improves comfort and allows much freer movement to the cow and allows them to lie down more comfortably. Cows require a lying down time of up to 14 hours per day (in periods of up to 80 minutes) to achieve optimum production. This is not being achieved with conventional designs. For every extra hour lying down, the cow will produce one litre more milk per day for the same feed input. The design also reduces stress on the animal, which in turn reduces concentrations of the hormone cortisol, thereby increasing the cow’s efficiency and yield.
“The concept originally came from our RD department,” says JFC operations manager Norman Black. “A number of the group come from farming backgrounds and one of them came up with the idea of improving conditions for dairy cows and increasing yields.”
Product development is ongoing with the aim of creating greater ease of installation. “Together with this we are researching the use of an anti-microbial material in the plastic to contribute to greater animal health and the use of recycled material where possible,” says Black. The potential market for the product is vast. The EU is the world’s largest milk producer with about 25 million dairy cows. This compares with 10 million in North America and nearly six million in Australia and New Zealand. Milk production is also on the increase in South-East Asia, including countries not traditionally noted for their milk consumption, such as China, which now has more than 12 million cows producing milk.
JFC will be targeting the German, Polish, French, UK and Irish markets over the next three years. “These markets account for 12.5 million dairy cows,” says Black. “This is approximately 50 per cent of the European market.
With a greater drive in Europe to more efficient production methods, the JFC deluxe cow cubicle is well positioned to capitalise on sales within this sector. The main market will ultimately be in the US, UK and New Zealand where dairy farms are of a much greater scale than here in Ireland and are run very much as businesses. These farmers see even minor improvements in yield as being significant and will therefore find the benefits of the JFC Deluxe Cow Cubicle very attractive.
TOMORROW SEES the culmination of
The Irish TimesInterTradeIreland Innovation awards with a ceremony at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin.
The winners in each of the six categories – and the overall winner – will be chosen from the 18 shortlisted entries, a mix of established innovators, start-ups, public sector organisations and third-level spin-outs.
More than 430 initial registrations were received for this year's competition, with 155 applications making it into the preliminary round. Of these, 128 detailed entries were reviewed by an initial panel of judges.
The entries were judged on five weighted criteria, with scoring for proven originality, market/user impact, project management and sustainability or barriers to entry by competitors. Of the 128 finalists with detailed applications, the initial judges were tasked with creating a shortlist of 18; three in each of the categories. Today we preview the three shortlisted entries for the product category.
