Cattle feeding as simple as turning on the telly

John O'Connor, Cashel with his automated meal and nut dispenser at the National Ploughing Championships, Ratheniska, Co Laois. Picture: Dan Linehan

Cashel man John O’Connor won the lifetime achievement award in the National Ploughing Championships Innovation Arena this year for his invention, the Dangan meal and nut dispenser for remote-controlled cattle feeding outdoors.

The eye-catching contraption takes up almost the length of the machinery section of the Innovation Pavilion and includes a remote-controlled hopper positioned on a rails running above a feeding trailer.

“You can extend it for up to 100 yards so you can feed up to 100 cattle at it,” Mr O’Connor said.

“It was invented out of necessity really,” he told the Irish Examiner. “I was getting too old to be lifting meal bags for the calves so I wanted to create something that would make things easier. The bags are heavy, and then when it gets mucky, you’re really in bother. You can fill it with a tractor and loader and then after that you just need to press a button for it to feed out.” 

The feeder was also designed with a hitch so it can be towed – an adaption made to previous iterations of the design.

Mr O’Connor’s invention has been put to good use on his son’s 300-cow dairy farm.

“We have different styles of management,” he chuckled. “It keeps me out of his way and keeps my brain ticking too.

“I made one for the milking parlour too – it’s the same idea, but instead of running along a trailer it runs along the wall of the milking parlour.”

The Dangan meal and nut dispenser can be adapted for different size bins up to the two-tonne model on display this week at the National Ploughing Championships. Feed space can be increased in 8ft sections.