Eurotier 2024 feed innovation awards winners
In the run up to the Eurotier show, the DLG Innovation Commission announced this edition’s innovation award winners. In total there are 4 gold and 21 silver medals winners. Here you’ll find an overview of the feed innovations.
The 2024 edition of EuroTier will be held in Hanover, Germany, from November 12-15. At a press conference in Offenbach, Germany, the organising German Agricultural Society (DLG) said that the show will feature over 2,165 exhibitors from 52 countries. In total 665 exhibitors will be from Germany (35%), whereas the other 1,389 exhibitors hail from outside the host nation (65%).
The following 4 feed innovations are awarded with a silver medal:
Blend of volatile fatty acids for cattle
Zinpro Corporation; Hall 22, Stand C31
The feed supplement Zinpro IsoFerm is a blend of volatile fatty acids. These occur ‘naturally’ in the rumen during the breakdown of branched-chain amino acids and act as growth factors, particularly for cellulolytic rumen microbes. Their targeted supplementation offers the potential to improve microbial protein synthesis and fibre digestibility, thus fostering rumen function, metabolism and efficiency. Tests show that fibre digestion is increased by up to 15% and microbial protein synthesis by up to 6%. New, preliminary test results additionally indicate their potential to reduce methane production. Depending on a cow’s metabolic situation, the addition of Zinpro IsoFerm can therefore lead to a higher milk yield during early lactation or better lactation curve persistence during late lactation. This results in increased farm profitability.
Heavy-duty magnet for feed mixing systems
SILOKING Mayer Maschinenbau GmbH; Hall 27, Stand E15
In the area of mechanised cattle feeding, foreign bodies containing iron in the mixed ration pose a significant potential risk to the animals. To counter this problem, permanent magnets, to which these magnetisable foreign bodies adhere, have been installed in for some time. To date, however, the adhering foreign bodies have had to be manually removed individually from the integrated magnets. This procedure often resulted in injuries to the person performing the work. In the system designed by Siloking Mayer Maschinenbau GmbH, the heavy-duty magnet can now be removed together with its surrounding housing and all adhering foreign bodies for the first time. This therefore shifts the activity of detaching them from the principal danger zone, facilitates the task as a whole and significantly reduces the risk of injury.
Monitoring of calf drinking behaviour
URBAN GmbH & Co. KG ;Hall 13, Stand B09
Urban SipControl is an innovative system for determining the welfare of suckling calves at automatic feeders. The system records the animal’s sucking strength and the individual swallowing processes during the drinking process in high resolution and can adapt the feeding process to the individual animal by means of active flow control. Physiologically optimised feeding times in combination with low swallowing volumes can therefore be implemented for each individual animal during each drinking process. Deviations from the animals’ individual sucking patterns can be used for predictive health monitoring. The system uses a high-resolution, inductive flow sensor to scan the pulsating volumetric flow that occurs in the suction line of suckling calves at microsecond intervals.
Feeding bucket lid with filling opening
HIKO GmbH: Hall 11, Stand: D59
Calf rearing remains the most sensitive area in dairy farming. Above all, feeding hygiene is a high-priority issue. In fact, open feeding buckets are still seen very frequently at the calf igloos because removing and reattaching lids takes a considerable amount of time, which is often avoided. However, open feeding buckets significantly facilitate the entry of dirt and, above all, flies in the summer.
HIKO offers a simple and, above all, practical solution to this problem in the form of the ‘Easyfill‘ feeding bucket lid. The lid is equipped with a self-closing opening through which the filler neck of the milk shuttle can be inserted at any time and the bucket filled. As handling barely differs from filling without a lid, a high level of staff acceptance is to be anticipated.
