Heat detection device could boost dairy economy

Fraser Smith with Fieldays award. Photo / Supplied

A low-cost device designed to detect when cows are ovulating and ready to be inseminated has earned two Kiwi entrepreneurs a spot among the finalists in the 2018 New Zealander of the Year Awards.

Fraser Smith and Matt Yallop of Farmshed Labs are finalists in the New Zealand Innovator of the Year category for their product FlashMate.

FlashMate is a small plastic dome, housing touchscreen electronics that accurately detects the activity associated in cows that are in heat and ready for insemination. A flashing red light signals to the farmer it's ready for insemination.

Smith says this technology helps address a huge challenge faced by dairy farmers - knowing exactly when a cow is in heat. He says there are significant economic factors at stake when it comes to heat detection because it's the single controllable factor that makes the biggest impact on farm profitability.

"Lifting heat detection rates by even a small margin can have a massive impact on the economy," he says. "DairyNZ have said a lift in detection rates by 15 per cent would add an extra $300 million to New Zealand's GDP, so there are huge gains to be made from this."

FlashMate on a cow. Photo / Supplied

Smith says every year New Zealand farmers are trying to spot more than 10 million heats during a six-week period. "They're looking for behavioural cures and rubbing marks on tail paint that indicate the cow is ready for insemination. This requires a judgement call, which is stressful.

"Having your best heat-detecting farmer available for six weeks straight during breeding comes at a real cost on an individual level."

Smith says technology should provide valuable solutions to relevant industry problems.

FlashMate is distributed nationally through Gallagher, and Smith and Yallop are meeting with dairy and beef researchers around the world who are interested in understanding what FlashMate can do for their industries.

"We are meeting with people at the top of their game internationally, the key influencers in their industries, and they're excited by the potential of the product," says Smith.

"Whether it's farmers, CEOs or research professionals, once they see it's from New Zealand we immediately have their attention because we have such a fantastic dairying reputation. Our dairy industry is one of the few competitive industries competing on a global scale that New Zealanders should be really proud of."

FlashMate is now sold in Australia, Ireland, the UK, South Africa and South East Asia with enquiries coming from all over the world.

Internationally, dairy systems differ from New Zealand's and Smith and Yallop are working to create evidence for FlashMate in these systems. Currently a large project is underway with the University of Missouri, and Smith and Yallop will travel to the UK next month to initiate another project with the University of Cambridge.

Other industry research groups in the UK, Ireland, USA and Japan have also taken an interest in FlashMate. "It's set to be a busy year for us," says Smith.

The New Zealander of the Year Awards will be announced at an event in Auckland on Thursday 22 February.