The following five products were chosen by a committee of industry professionals and dairymen as the newest, most innovative dairy products and will be showcased during World Ag Expo Feb. 12-14 in Tulare, California.Progressive Dairyman asked each of the product inventors or sponsoring companies to discuss how their products came to the dairy market and how the products fill an industry need.

Sandtrap

Accent Manufacturing’s Vice President Kerry Doyle says the Sandtrap’s development was almost by accident but that it is uniquely helpful for mechanically separating sand from scrape manure.

PD EDITOR: Why is there a need for this product?

DOYLE: The purpose for this product is to remove sand from the waste stream before it gets to storage and to do that in a much smaller footprint. Our focus was mostly with scrape-barn manure versus flush manure and/or flush-flume manure.

The product was specifically designed to remove the sand out of the waste stream and put it into a pile that the producer can manage. This piece of equipment tag-teams with our rotary screen separator.

PD EDITOR: What brought about this product’s creation?

DOYLE: Like all inventions in the modern era, it was kind of accidental. We discovered that when operating our separator in sand-laden manure the liquid remaining after the manure solids had been separated out had most of the sand still in it. We found we could remove that sand from the waste stream.

Once we observed that, then we started looking for different ways to capture that sand and capture it in a form that the dairyman could manipulate – putting it into a pile that was stackable – with the ultimate potential of recycling it again in a freestall barn.

PD EDITOR: What type of dairy producer do you think this product will benefit most?

DOYLE: This product will benefit any dairyman who is currently or potentially looking at using sand as a bedding media.

The dairymen that are going to see the largest benefit will be those who are using a scrape manure system of some type. The system will work very well in high-density scrape manure. There isn’t too much from a mechanical standpoint that these dairymen can use to separate sand.

PD EDITOR: How will your product make a dairy more profitable and/or more efficient?

DOYLE: Dairymen will have the potential to reuse their sand which will reduce their bedding cost. And keeping the sand out of long-term storage will reduce their handling costs.

PD EDITOR: When was the product introduced?

DOYLE: Late spring 2007

PD EDITOR: Any products in working circulation?

DOYLE: We have one system in Ontario, Canada, and a couple of mobile systems operating in Wisconsin.

PD EDITOR: How long has the product been in development?

DOYLE: Two years

PD EDITOR: Why the name?

DOYLE: That’s what it does. It’s catchy. The name says it all.

Other products from this company:Accent IFRS Separator

Bella Health Systems

Bella Health Systems’ President Nick Rettedal says his product will help simplify the management of a thousand-cow dairy down to the management of individual pens, allowing producers to pinpoint cows who need individual treatment earlier.

PD EDITOR: Why is there a need for this product?

RETTEDAL: We are seeing an increased adult cow mortality rate throughout the nation. The earlier we can diagnose cows and see who in the herd needs critical attention right away will help decrease mortality rates. It will also help in general with improving milk production and peak milk. If we get the cow treated earlier on in an illness, we can get her back into production faster, and hopefully she doesn’t fall off her lactation curve as far.

PD EDITOR: What brought about this product’s creation?

RETTEDAL: The genesis was dinner in 2005 with me and my partner, Scott Cockroft. He was concerned about the current RFID tags. He said all they are is an ID. He said he wanted to know a cow’s pen location and temperature readings on his cows. So we started down a path to create this product.

We’ve built the product around the needs of the dairy industry. We spent a lot of time talking to dairymen and vets about what they want out of the product.

PD EDITOR: What type of dairy producer do you think this product will benefit most?

RETTEDAL: This product is going to benefit the guys who have more than 500 head on their facilities and who can’t physically get around to looking at every single animal, every single day. When you are dealing with herds that size, it is good to bring management back to a one-on-one basis, letting your cows be cows until they need attention. This system lets you know right away when an animal needs to be looked at.

PD EDITOR: How will your product make a dairy more profitable and/or more efficient?

RETTEDAL: Dairymen will save money with reduced adult cow mortality and make money on increased milk production due to fewer animals in the hospital pen and fewer cows falling off their lactation curves.

PD EDITOR: When was the product introduced?

RETTEDAL: This year

PD EDITOR: Any products in working circulation?

RETTEDAL: We have been beta testing the product for the last nine months.

PD EDITOR: How long has the product been in development?

RETTEDAL: More than 2 years

PD EDITOR: Why the name?

RETTEDAL: We picked “Bella” because it means beautiful and healthy in Italian. We thought it was a very fitting name because our product is designed for all the dairy’s females.

HI 84429

Hanna Instrument’s Marketing Manager Gary Parenteau says the HI 84429 was developed specifically for producers and distributors to measure the lactic acid in their milk so they can maintain specific standards.

PD EDITOR: Why is there a need for this product?

PARENTEAU: The need for the dairy industry is a low-cost lab that is simple to use. This machine will give you a low and high range of lactic acid as well as your pH reading and temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit.

If you look around, you will see a lot of automatic titrators that are a multi-parameter, but this titrator is specifically designed for your titratable acids, in regards to the lactic acid for the dairy industry.

PD EDITOR: What brought about its creation?

PARENTEAU: It was created here at the Hanna Rhode Island Research and Development Lab. It was developed by Dr. Piero Franco, the head of research and development, and his staff, as well as senior chemist Jane Burdick. They got the idea for this machine from the wine industry model that tests sulfur levels in wine.

PD EDITOR: What type of dairy producer do you think this product will benefit most?

PARENTEAU: This product will benefit any milk processor or anyone who wants to test milk quality. It will also benefit smaller dairies because they are going to get a very accurate lactic acid range.

PD EDITOR: How will your product make a dairy more profitable and/or more efficient?

PARENTEAU: You will no longer need to send your samples out to an independent laboratory and wait for results. You can get results in less than three minutes with this machine. It’s small, compact, easy-to-use and you will be able to get quick results. You won’t have to spend your money with an outside laboratory.

PD EDITOR: When was the product introduced?

PARENTEAU: It has been on the market for about a year now.

PD EDITOR: Any products in working circulation?

PARENTEAU: There are several dairies that use this product, as well as two large yogurt companies.

PD EDITOR: How long has the product been in development?

PARENTEAU: It’s hard to say because research and development went back and forth between products. The wine version was introduced in mid-2006.

PD EDITOR: Why the name?

PARENTEAU: That is how all of our instruments are labeled. The HI stands for Hanna Instruments, and the number is the product name.

Shifttronic 3-speed gearbox

Trioliet Mulloss BV Regional Manager Alan Brandmeyer says the Shifttronic 3-speed gearbox gives dairymen an efficient way to control the mixing of feed without manually shifting gears. The electronic control box allows you to program in five different mixing cycles, determining at which feed weight the gearbox shifts.

PD EDITOR: Why is there a need for this product?

BRANDMEYER: In the past, horizontal mixtures were the norm. When dairymen started to mix a true total mixed ration (TMR) with hay and oats and things, the horizontal mixers didn’t work very well. Vertical mixers became more popular [because] they can handle just about any material. The downside to verticals is they take a lot of horsepower to start up.

Most of the tractors on the market could not handle the big vertical mixers when they were loaded and that is why we developed the 3-speed gearbox.

PD EDITOR: What brought about its creation?

BRANDMEYER: The industry is asking for bigger mixers. As dairies grow to 1,000-, 2,000- or 10,000-cow dairies, producers have a lot of cows to feed. So the bigger the mixer the more they get done in the same amount of time. With there only being 24 hours in a day, they need to get more cows fed in that time. As we got into our bigger mixers, which is 1,700 cubic feet, they demanded something so you could still start it.

PD EDITOR: What type of dairy producer do you think this product will benefit most?

BRANDMEYER: Any dairy – because of its fuel efficiency. Any producer that is running a mixer for more than six hours a day can benefit from this product.

PD EDITOR: How will your product make a dairy more profitable and/or more efficient?

BRANDMEYER: Labor, fuel and equipment savings will increase. Also, with it mixing faster but also more gentle, the overall ration will be better.

PD EDITOR: When was the product introduced?

BRANDMEYER: We released it into the industry in June 2005. We had the mixer at World Ag Expo in 2005, which was the first time it had been seen by the public.

PD EDITOR: Any products in working circulation?

BRANDMEYER: There are probably 20 to 30 in operation. We have built over 70, but I don’t know how many of them are actually in operation. Worldwide there are thousands and thousands of hours of proven operation. We have 20 more on backorder. It’s coming on quickly.

PD EDITOR: How long has the product been in development?

BRANDMEYER: Research started in late 2003. Then we developed and tested the product in 2004.

PD EDITOR: Why the name?

BRANDMEYER: It comes from shifting electronically. It’s the shifttronic.

PD EDITOR: Other product names from this company?

BRANDMEYER: We got a Top-10 award for our Silogrip product, but we mainly deal in vertical mixers.

Multimin

Multimin USA, Inc. President and CEO Raymond Cerniga, a veterinarian and nutritionist, says Multimin was developed specifically for cattle to absorb more minerals from their normal diet when they need it most – during labor and when under stress.

PD EDITOR: Why is there a need for this product?

CERNIGA: Absorption level of trace minerals is minimal at best. It’s erratic. Cows usually absorb anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of the minerals they are fed. During times of major demand, we inject the product to offset the sub-optimal status. This need is well-recognized by nutritionists worldwide, so it is not a new concept, but they didn’t have the injectable until about 15 years ago.

PD EDITOR: What brought about its creation?

CERNIGA: In the 1980s, Robert Laurie pioneered the use of sodium EDTA chelates in injectables, and MULTIMIN was born. This product, the production process and the ratios in the formula have been upgraded and patented over the years to produce a range of products to supplement key trace minerals at critical times in the production cycle of animals, to optimize trace mineral status and trace mineral-dependent functions.

PD EDITOR: What type of dairy producer do you think this product will benefit most?

CERNIGA: Most of our users are large dairymen who have the wherewithal and record-keeping capabilities to recognize the value. They can see a dollar value from the product. Our most important customers are the veterinarians and nutritionists involved in the embryo transplant sector. They can see a more viable embryo coming out of a cow that has been injected with this product before they start to flush them.

PD EDITOR: How will your product make a dairy more profitable and/or more efficient?

CERNIGA: As stated before, the product will help the cow to absorb the minerals it needs more efficiently, especially in times of stress and great demand.

PD EDITOR: When was the product introduced?

CERNIGA: It has been on the market since 2002, marketed under the Multimin Corporation name.

PD EDITOR: Any products in working circulation?

CERNIGA: It has been used by dairymen for five years, and this product has been available for other species for 15 years.

PD EDITOR: How long has the product been in development?

CERNIGA: It has been in development for 15 years and the idea has been worked on since the 1960s.

PD EDITOR: Why the name?

CERNIGA: It is the name of the corporation which deals strictly in the trace mineral business. PD