Friday, 23 December 2016 14:55

This innovation cake has many candles

Written by Peter Burke

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Ed and Ned Harty.

Nearly 50 years ago, an Irish farmer’s frustration at waiting six months for a new dairy shed led to his starting a company to build them.

Ned Harty’s business Dairymaster now employs 375 workers and is recognised worldwide for its science and innovation. Peter Burke visited during a recent trip to Ireland.

The road to Dairymaster is anything but flash, taking you to the factory at Causeway, 16km from Tralee, County Kerry, a major dairying region. Tralee is the home of the famous Rose of Tralee competition and a popular tourist town.

But the 16km to Causeway is pretty much a back road and the town an ordinary Irish village. It gives away nothing about the high-tech, 5ha factory complex, the global headquarters of Dairymaster, 2km from the village centre.

Ned Harty’s grandfather once owned the farm where the factory is located. When Harty took it over it was milking 70 cows – big by Irish standards.

Harty had the skills to build dairy equipment and has built the business that now exports milking sheds and other dairy equipment to 40 countries including New Zealand.

Heading the company today is Edmond Harty, Ned’s son, who from childhood in Causeway wanted to play a part in the family business. Always interested in software and electronics, even at school he would see to electric plugs in the school building. After graduating as a mechanical engineer he completed a PhD at University College Dublin in milking performance.

“I would describe this as like optimising the engine of a car – making it perform better,” Harty told Rural News. “Except that my degree relates to improving the performance of the cow.”

Edmond Harty says his education was to enable him to join the family company, where he’s now chief executive with an impressive list of awards including Irish International Entrepreneur of the Year. His passion for the company and his role as technical director is obvious.

The products produced by Dairymaster are well known.

One that has caught on well in NZ is MooMonitor+ which allows farmers to monitor individual cows 24/7 for heat detection, feeding and behaviour which may signify a problem. This information is conveyed to farmers’ smartphones.

And Swiftflow Commander monitors and controls each cow’s individual milking, feeding and health in the dairy shed.

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