Herdwatch were the big winners of the 2018 version of the National Dairy Innovation Awards at the National Dairy Show in Millstreet.

The overall winning innovation was the new Farm Medicine Scanner feature on the latest version of the Herdwatch application.

The app is used on over 8,000 farms across Ireland and the UK and the new feature utilises the technology available in your smart phone to make recording medicines as simple as taking a picture.

The Herdwatch Farm Medicine Scanner was earlier announced as the Gold Award winner in the technology section.

The other Gold Award winners were  Cormac Tagging with their Tissue Sample Wristband in the engineering section and Micromax Plant Health with their dry footbath Mistral Dairy product in the science section.

Cormac Tagging’s new tissue sample wristband is worn on a farmer’s wrist while tagging and sample taking.

Mistral, marketed in Ireland by Allen Nutrition, is a dry footbath that can be placed at the exit of the milking parlour or robot. Other placement options are in a concentrate automatic feeder or in a cubicle with a licking block.

The remaining National Dairy Innovation Award winners who received Silver awards were ICBF for Cow’s Own Worth in the Science section, John Porter Engineering for the DCC Waterbed in Engineering section and True North Technology for their new WeighRight product in the Technology section.