2023 AgTech Breakthrough Award winners announced

Plus, fibrolytic enzyme shows promise to improve feed efficiency

Sep 02, 2023

A sorting gate technology for beef cattle, a rotary parlor with 30 percent greater throughput for milking cows, and a new supplement to help dairy cows make it through the transition period easier were this year’s cattle-related AgTech Breakthrough Award winners.

Here’s more about the three cow technologies who were recognized:

Elanco’s PenPoint Sort System is a hands-free, on-chute technology that optimizes sorting decisions during beef cattle processing.
DeLaval’s new E500 rotary has 30 percent greater throughput than the company’s existing rotary solutions and can milk up to 1,066 cows per hour. The rotary is available in stall sizes up to 128 stalls.
Phibro’s new Hy•D product gives producers a new strategy to consider when helping transition cows manage through prepartum and transition. The product contains 25-hydroxyvitamin (OH) D, a metabolite that remains in blood circulation longer than Vitamin D3. 25(OH) D aids in calcium recovery mechanisms and the health of postpartum cows.

The AgTech Breakthrough Awards are recognitions for breakthrough leaders in the most competitive agriculture technology categories. This year over 1,750 nominations from across all of agriculture were submitted for evaluation. All award nominations were evaluated and scored by an expert panel of judges, representing a mix of technical, business, academic and marketing expertise within the ag industry.

AfiMilk (Sponsor)
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Cow locating technology may led to more milk

Nedap recently released a report about the benefits of cow locating technology. Anecdotal data from their clients indicates that use of the technology may lead to 1 to 2 pounds of additional milk production per cow per day due to more cow freedom to access feed and water and less lockup time.

Read some of the other benefits here.

Start-up fighting enteric methane emissions raises $29 million USD

CH4 Global recently announced it has raised $29 million USD in Series B funding. The company will use the money to build and validate a production facility for its enteric methane inhibiting feed additive. The product uses red seaweed (Asparagopsis) and is called Methane Tamer. The production facility the company aims to build will grow and process the seaweed strain for the company’s commercial product line.

Fibrolytic enzyme shows promise to improve feed efficiency

A new feed additive from Canadian company CBS Bio Platforms shows promise to improve dairy cow feed efficiency. The company recently announced that their new product Optimax E led to significant increases in dry matter intake and milk production. Perhaps most interesting was that researchers saw a carry-over effect of the results after the product was removed from the diet, suggesting potential rumen microbiome population changes. Many rumen-influencing products are only effective while being fed, so if the carry-over effect can be further validated it would be something extraordinary.

Learn more about the research below:

Dairy profit projections from ZISK

Projected profitability for the next 12 months for two dairy herd sizes CONTINUED TO INCREASE in recent profit projections from ZISK.

ZISK is a profit-projection smartphone app that tracks individual dairy farm profitability based on current CME board prices. Projections for a 1,000-cow dairy producing an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow and a 2,500-cow dairy producing an average of 85 pounds of milk per cow are provided.

12-month dairy farm profit projections (as of Sept. 1, 2023):

1,000-cow dairy = $489,200 (UP about $48,300 in the last two weeks)

2,500-cow dairy = $1.965 million (UP about $133,000 in the last two weeks)

The Cow Tech Report

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