Dairy can save €171m energy costs
Irish dairy farmers could save €171m on energy costs within 10 years via remote monitoring and controlling of their milk tanks, according to Dairymaster.
The Tralee-based dairy equipment manufacturer’s new SwiftCool system promises €40,000 savings for a 100-cow herd over the expected 20-year lifetime of the equipment. Launched in the UK market yesterday, Irish farmers will get their first sight of SwiftCool at next week’s National Ploughing Championships in Offaly.
The farmer can manage the cooling technology remotely via a phone app. The two-way functionality allows the farmer to send commands to the tank and to receive updates and alerts.
“Every dairy farmer in the country could potentially benefit from the SwiftCool app,” said Dr John Daly, Dairymaster’s research and innovation manager. “The app allows you to control the water cooling and heating on your tank remotely via phone. That will deliver great energy efficiency.
“The system also records a full history of temperature, wash cycles, collection cycles and temperature washing, among other data. It gives the farmer the power to ensure that milk is in the best possible condition before it leaves the yard.”
Dairymaster says the cooling system gives control and peace of mind to the farmer that thousands of litres of valuable milk are being stored safely. Dairymaster is the only manufacturer to provide this information to the farmer via an app.
“It’s useful to have the data on your computer at home, but the beauty of being able to access all your milk tank data via the SwiftCool app on your phone is that you can control the cooling system from anywhere in the world,” said Dr Daly.
Farmers will already be familiar with Dairymaster’s Swiftflo revolver rotary milking plant. Visitors to next week’s ploughing will also shortly get to see the new Dairymaster Rotaglide, an advanced rotary platform table roller system, which rotates the milk plant smoothly during milking using minimal energy.
“The Rotaglide will make a big difference to dairy farmers,” said Dr John Daly. “It will give a much smoother delivery from the rotary parlour. In an Irish context, you’d be looking at farmers with herds of 200 or more cows.”
This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.
