Offaly invention set to change the farming world

There was a time when the sleep patterns of farmers during cow calving season were much like those of parents with newborns, with sleep grabbed in snatches between trips to check on cows set to calve.

Technology has changed all that. First came camera systems that allowed farmers to look into their shed via television screen from the comfort of their own home.

Now that’s changed again, with an Offaly man’s invention letting farmers know by text when cows either outdoors or indoors are about to give birth.

Moocall sensors were launched by Tubber’s Niall Austin at the Ploughing Championships last week.

He told the Offaly Independent this week that the farming community is enthusiastically taking to the new technology, and that as a result he’s hoping to create some ten jobs - including some in the midlands - over the next year.

The sensor Niall has developed is operated by being clipped on to a cow’s tail. It measures the level of contractions the calving cow it’s fixed to is having via muscular movements in its tail, and conveniently sends the cow’s owner a text on average an hour before a calf is born.

Niall explained that he came up with the idea back in 2010, when he lost a heifer and her calf - worth over €2,000 between them.

“The heifer was calving outdoors,” he explained. “Unfortunately the calf died, and the heifer was paralysed and ended up being put down. There was no system out there then that would work outdoors as well as indoors. It was a very big loss to us.”

Having hit on the problem, Niall says he “nosed around for a while” seeing if a solution for that problem could be worked out. Getting the product to market has taken investment in the region of €1.2m, but Niall says the product is taking off in Ireland and plans are in place for it to be sold in countries across the EU in the next six months.

Even older farmers who may not be very comfortable with technology weren’t scared off buying the system at the Ploughing Championships, Niall said.

“Even though it’s new technology we’re using, and very sophisticated technology, we still made it very user-friendly,” he explained, adding that new owners can be sent away with systems that already have their phone number programmed into it.

“Our units have an end-to-end sim,” Niall added, “so it can work over all networks and therefore never be out of coverage.”

More information on the innovative Moocall sensor is available at www.moocallsensors.com. Sensors are currently on sale via the same website for €299.