Anuland bags top prize at National Dairy Show Innovation Awards

Limerick-based company Anuland was announced as the overall winner at the National Dairy Innovation Awards 2019.

The awards took place at the National Dairy Show in Millstreet, Co Cork over the weekend. As well as winning the top prize, Anuland also won the award for Best Start-up 2019 and the National Dairy Show Innovation Award for Technology in the show’s gold category.

As he accepted the prize, founder David McDonnell said: “We are thrilled to receive such recognition for our company and our technology. We all know how precious time is and not having enough time to set aside to walk the farm measuring grass each week is a real concern.

“Our camera technology enables farmers to measure their grass on the go, by taking a photo of the grass whilst doing other daily tasks. This image data feeds into our system giving accurate grass measurement in real time, helping farmers to keep on top of grass management decisions at all times.”

FieldSense

Founded by McDonnell, who began his life as a farmer helping his brother and father with a 400 cow dairy and poultry business, Anuland was set up to help farmers achieve full optimisation of their limited resources and encourage sustainability.

In a recent interview with Siliconrepublic.com, McDonnell said: “The ultimate goal is to help farmers produce food sustainably, allowing farming to continue for future generations. Sustainability is not just about being environmentally sustainable (which is extremely important), it must also be about financial sustainability.”

The start-up’s main product is called FieldSense, and it aims to make farming more financially and environmentally sustainable. This device helps farmers track fertiliser usage and daily growth rates of grass, without them needing to walk the farm.

The Anuland FieldSense Monitoring Station is placed at the headland of a farm’s paddocks behind an electric fence (to avoid damage). It collects soil and environmental metrics then transmits the data to the Anuland Insights Platform in the cloud. Then, the Insights Platform generates recommendations based on the data it has collected.

The company said: “The information and recommendations are available at your fingertips through the FieldSense app – regardless of where you are! This means you get insights into the grass wedge and farm cover, information for better farm and grass management, and less time walking the farm so less reliance to help.”

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