Quick Dips

Cow Belles

An innovative electronic alarm has the potential to save dairy farmers thousands of dollars by warning when cows on antibiotics are about to be milked.

Development of the device began two years ago when Geoff Laurent, Managing Director of Shoof International Ltd, got a call from a Bay of Plenty farmer fed up with inadvertently mixing milk from cows on antibiotics with that of the rest of the herd.

"Antibiotics contaminate a cow's milk and if the farmer isn't aware that stock being treated have slipped through the milking system, he'll have to dump thousands of dollars worth of milk," says Tony Hadfield of Technology New Zealand, which contributed $60,000 to the research and development of the alarm.

"If contaminated milk is discovered, then the dairy company will test his milk every day for the rest of the season, at the farmer's expense. There may also be penalties as high as $10,000 if a tanker load of milk is contaminated."

Shoof International, known for innovative animal breeding and health care solutions, is now field testing the alarm which should go a long way to solving farmers' problems.

"The alarm is simple and fail-safe," says Laurent. "It is an electronic device that a farmer can use on a cow he is concerned about. One part is strapped around the cow's leg and the other contained in a medallion worn by the farmer which sounds an alarm whenever the farmer comes within arm's length of the cow."

Shoof International is taking out world-wide patents for the alarm and intends launching it at the National Agricultural Field Days this year. Laurent says the device lends itself to a variety of other uses on the farm and, with potential sales world wide, could earn $6 million per year in six years.