Deserved National Dairy Innovation award for Grasshopper leap forward in grass measuring
Innovation is about identifying a problem and creating a solution.
The winners identified problems surrounding grass measuring and grass utilisation, and created one solution to solve them all.
Their Grasshopper product has been developed by PhD student Diarmuid McSweeney and True North Technologies founder Paddy Halton, with the assistance of Teagasc, Moorepark.
Grasshopper is generating international interest, with True North recently signing a distribution agreement in the UK, and having appointed agents in Northern Ireland, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Grasshopper is also being trialled in Denmark, Belgium, and Germany.
Accepting the award from Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, managing director Paddy Halton said: “The company is delighted to receive the recognition this award brings, which further validates what a significant number of farmers who use the system already experience, which is a significant improvement in their management information”.
So what are the problems Grasshopper is solving?
Firstly it takes the difficult mathematics out of grass measuring. It also solves the skilled labour issue of grass measuring on farms, because anyone can use the device, and results are easily verified.
It maximises grass utilisation through its grass allocation feature, allowing greater efficiency on any farm. This addresses the biggest problem facing the Irish dairy industry of trying to control input costs in order to maintain margins in a sales environment where volatile milk prices is a key feature.
The Grasshopper idea originated in 2012 when Teagasc identified a need for technology to assist farmers with grass management .
Diarmuid was brought on to the project as a PhD candidate, and the concept of a device to feed data into grass management software was conceived.
The project was approved for EU funding, and Clare-based True North Mapping became involved.
The team began work in 2013. The company liaised with Teagasc Moorepark, where Diarmuid led the validation exercise as they tested the product.
The key issue was the algorithm to calculate the important conversions like sward to dry matter yield.
True North Technologies was founded in 2015, when the Grasshopper became a marketable product. Teagasc retained the intellectual property to the device, but the Shannon based firm have international rights to market it.
How does it work? The first thing a farmer does if they have purchased a Grasshopper is to download either the Apple or Android app.
Equipped with the Grasshopper and a smartphone, the farmer can now create a farm paddock map.
This is done through the GPS situated on top of the plate meter device. A point is recorded at every corner of the paddock, and the map is generated on the app via Bluetooth.
This can then be transferred to grass management systems. This function alone can cover some of the cost of the product, when compared to the cost of farm mapping.
The farm is now set up for grass measuring, and anyone can use the Grasshopper to measure grass. When each sample is taken, a GPS location is marked so a farmer can know that the paddock is sampled properly.
The Apps algorithm will calculate the dry matter yield in each paddock using the area from the farm map, the cover recorded, and the Teagasc data.
This information can be transferred to grass management programmes like Agrinet or Pasturebase.
The company is working with Kingswood, to enable data transfer to their grass package, and other software companies will also be brought online as they develop API and interfaces.
The farmer has real-time information on grass growth and paddock performance.
Based on the principle of ‘what is known can be managed’, the system provides management information on which the efficiency of the dairy enterprise depends.
A new feature which will be available to the market in the spring is the Allocate function. This is the next key for grass utilisation. It will be made available free of charge to all previous App devices as well.
The App records information through Teagasc data and details the farmer inputs. Once it knows variables like previous covers, grass type, location and cow numbers, Grasshopper calculates grass dry matter demand.
The farmer can go into the App, select a paddock to graze and check settings for cow numbers and required length of grazing.
The App will then draw a line across the paddock (within the farm map) to suggest the placement of the temporary fence.
The farmer can then move any point to accommodate a water trough or entrance, and the map will auto adjust.
The GPS on the Grasshopper will then locate the ideal position for the farmer to erect the fence. This feature ensures the maximum grass utilisation possible.
Diarmuid McSweeney stated, “Grass utilisation on a modern dairy farm is critical to profitability. Increasing the grass tonnage per hectare and using it to best effect are basic management principles made possible with good grass measurement tools.”
“This award means a lot to us. It is recognition for a lot of hard work. We have even got calls from England because of it.”
Grasshopper is available in Ireland from True North Technologies Ltd.
The Grasshopper grass measurement device won the gold award in the technology section in the National Dairy Innovation Awards at Millstreet.
The silver winner was bovilis.ie which is MSD’s new vaccine reminder website.
Other winners include gold in the engineering section for Power Farm Services and silver for Northern Engineering.
Gold in the science section went to Interchem for Eprecis, and the silver award went to Devenish Nutrition.
* More here next week on the winners.
