The National Ploughing Champions was held in Ratheniska , Co Laois on the 19th -21th of September. We would like to thanks everyone that called into the Pearson stand during this years event. It was great to meet new and existing customers and showcase our new innovation and technology.
Mastitis is a common problem in dairy farming around this time of year during early lactation. There are two main types of mastitis: environmental and contagious. Contagious mastitis occurs when bacteria such as Staph Aureus, Strep Uberis, and Strep Agalactiae are transmitted between cows during milking.
Mastitis is caused by bacteria such as Staph Aureus, Strep Uberis, and Strep Agalactiae. This type of mastitis is transmitted from cow to cow during milking, making it crucial to control its spread.
To prevent the spread of contagious mastitis, it’s essential to minimise the number of infected cows in the herd and eliminate possible sources of bacteria. One effective way of achieving this is by using the Clear Stream Cluster Flush system, which flushes the cluster with parasitic acid after each cow has finished milking, preventing the spread. This system is easy to retrofit into most parlours and can reduce the risk of bacterial transmission.
Another way of identifying infected cows is by analysing milk-recording data and testing milk samples from cows with high cell counts. Infected cows should be treated promptly, and more severe cases should be removed from the herd to prevent further spread of the bacteria.
Maintaining proper hygiene practices during milking is crucial in preventing bacterial transmission. An effective milking routine should be in place to minimize the number of potential bacteria being spread from one cow to another. It’s also essential to ensure that the milking machine is adequately washed to eliminate any bacteria remaining in the plant.
By controlling the spread of contagious mastitis, dairy farmers can avoid the economic losses associated with mastitis, such as reduced milk production and treatment costs, and improve the welfare of their animals.
We were delighted to see our customer Shane Flanagan’s experience working with Pearson and Ja Colleran Farm Services featured in the Irish Farmers Journal on 4 January 2023. Shane installed a new 10-unit parlour on his farm in Crossmolina, Co. Mayo.
Shane took over the running of the herd from his father Martin Flanagan, a well-known Holstein breeder and Dovea Genetics breeding advisor. His high yielding herd is currently at 38 cows with young stock being reared off farm using contract rearing over the past six years.
Shane had worked on farms with rotarys, double-up parlours and swingovers previously and felt that the five-unit parlour that had been on the farm for 47 years was now very much outdated. After researching different parlour makes and suppliers, Shane chose Pearson Milking Technology due to our service and technological ability, the competitive pricing which accompanies it and the ability retrofit extras on to his set up in the future.
Shane’s new Pearson P100 parlour is a 10-unit herringbone parlour with room for an additional two units going forward. The parlour includes features such:
Shane plans to install an auto-drafting gate in the next two years and may install dump lines and cluster flush with Shane hoping to expand his 38-cow herd up to 50 in the next number of years.
We wish Shane the very best of luck with his new fit-out and future plans and we thank him for choosing Pearson.
Thanks to Martin Merrick for the super write up. See the full article on ‘The Irish Farmers Journal’ website below.
New red Parlour for high-yielding black and whites in Mayo
Today (Monday 19th September), Pearson Milking Technology, won the Farm Automation Award and was also the overall winner collecting the Innovator of the Year Award for Established Company at this years Enterprise Ireland Innovation Awards at the National Ploughing Championships. Headquartered in Athy, Co Kildare for over 75 years, Pearson Milking Technology supplies dairy equipment and technology to farmers in Ireland, the UK and 20 countries globally.
Using both vision technology and artificial intelligence, their winning innovation is an automated body condition scoring product called Bullseye. The Body Condition Score of a cow is a key metric in assessing the animal in terms of whether they are under or overweight. By automatically estimating the Body Condition Score of the animal, feed can be adjusted which in turn helps to keep the cow in ideal condition impacting on fertility, sustainability and of course animal welfare.
Director, David Pearson commented, “Pearson Milking Technology was founded in 1948 by our grandparents. Our Granny was an entrepreneur and our Grandad was an engineer. Since then we have manufactured milking equipment and technology for dairy farms from 5 cows to 5,000 cows. To be the overall winner of the Innovation Awards at this years National Ploughing Championship is very important to us and is a great accolade for us when we go to meet our international partners”.
Director Lloyd Pearson, added, “Bullseye came from an on-farm problem. We took this challenge back to our R&D lab, collaborated with Technological University Dublin and are now delighted to be launching this product for dairy farmers at this years National Ploughing Championship. Body condition scoring is a time consuming, subjective piece of work. As herd sizes increase, we see a really important role for Bullseye in automating body condition scoring and giving real time decision making information to dairy farmers”.
Pearson Milking Technology’s Lee Wilson who headed up the Bullseye project, commented, “We had an excellent collaboration with TU Dublin. We engage heavily in R&D to improve our technology for dairy farmers and the expertise of the team in TU Dublin added significant value. Our Bullseye automated body condition scoring product involves both IoT and sensor technology. This innovation will make a significant difference to dairy farmers in Ireland, the UK and internationally from both an economic and environmental sustainability perspective as well as from an animal welfare perspective”.
Speaking on behalf of Enterprise Ireland James Moloney commented, “ Pearson Milking Technology have developed a really smart solution, a really good labour saving device on farm. We see this as a solution which has applicability across any milking platform across the globe. With Bullseye, Pearson’s have taken their business one step further and integrated artificial intelligence and computer vision into a really exciting new product.”
We’re at UK Dairy Day today
We’re looking forward to meeting everyone 
Pop down to our stand to chat to the team. We’re at stand L3 
Delighted to share our new video of Loughlin Ryan, a new entrant dairy farmer, with his parents Pa and Ann in Upperchurch, Tipperary.
He uses a lot of technology which helps with his #GAA career! He tells a great story about the transition to dairying, and the features he values in the Pearson Milking parlour including:
Express Fit service
Automatic Cluster Removers (ACRs)
Dumpline
Cluster Flush
Mangers with Bully Bars
Airgates
DM us if you want to know more
