Could slurry really become more valuable than milk by 2030? According to the brains behind Extractics, a purification technology project from DIT, this is a distinct possibility.
“We’re going to be using slurry as our repository. Slurry will contain, depending on how the animal is fed, a certain amount of protein. Within that… we’re targeting one specific protein. So we’re not affecting the overall resource itself so the farmer can still spread it on the land,” explained professor Andrew Knox from the DIT School of Biological Sciences.
Professor Knox, Kieran O’Connell from DIT Hothouse and Thomas Woolmington from DIT School of Engineering are behind this purification technology project in the college.
Using the protein
Knox gave a ballpark figure of what this protein would be worth and the figure is roughly between €2,500 and €3,000 per teaspoon. What exactly would this high-value protein be used for?
“One area we’re looking into is antimicrobials. The idea there is that we would be able to pull out of slurry something along the lines of a natural antibiotic substitute.”
“Our vision for the future is food for health and we’re all ageing… as you age you’re more prone to diseases, so we posit that we can bring some of these special proteins into food,” says O’Connell.
“We’re using food as essentially a delivery system for the special proteins to keep your diabetes in check, to keep your hypertension in check, even to reduce weight.”
O’Connell compares this “fanciful “ idea to whey 30 years ago. He says people used to always throw it out, which would not happen today as it is a byproduct of the cheese and yoghurt industries.
“We would humbly posit that given the computational algorithms that Professor Knox has written, and given the engineering prowess of Doctor Woolmington, that slurry is the new whey,” O’Connell says.
The concept is that the Extractics device would sit above the slurry tank with a hose running into it. You would switch on the machine and have the slurry come up through the filter that would separate the protein from the slurry. In about 12 hours, the farmer could return, unscrew the filter and sell the captured protein.
“We’re taking bits and pieces of technology from other areas and transferring them into the farming arena, which opens the doors to a wide range of different applications in the future," says Woolmington.
This technology is not refined to slurry. At the Ploughing stand, it was being tested on eggs and vegetables.
“The 60m tonnes a year of slurry produced on the island of Ireland and growing… we see that if we can help the farmers to monetise a resource or repository of proteins on the farm, we see this as a service in the future…sell that the way they sell their milk, the way they sell their wool, says O’Connell.
Farm safety is hugely important in everyday life for farmers and those with children should especially take heed.
According to HSE statistics, two or three children died each year on a farm between 2008 and 2017.
Anna Carmody from the Little Red Design Studio is hoping to reduce these numbers through an interactive book and playmat that teaches children the dangers on a farm.
“I’m from Tullamore originally and I’ve always grown up in agriculture. My grandparents had a farm and we used to regularly visit it,” says Carmody.
“I kind of understood that safety is a huge issue when I was a bit older.
"My grandad was in an accident with a PTO shaft and he was very lucky and he survived.
"Whenever I would come home at the weekends, my mother would talk about an accident close by where a young child might have died on a farm. I was wondering why this was happening.”
She started researching children’s books about farming and noticed that they had no information about farm safety, so she took it into her own hands.
“I went back to the drawing board, back to college [in the National College of Art and Design], started making up some prototypes for educational products like games and different interaction games that would help teach a child about the hazards on a farm. Two years of prototyping brought me to a children’s book and a playmat combined.”
Education
Carmody uses Montessori teaching methods in her product.
Her educational background comes from teaching English in Vietnam. While there, she got a call from AgriKids asking her to work on a project with them.
This culminated in a collaboration with Teagasc and Agrikids in June to create an educational newsletter about farm safety for kids.
“Children are like sponges, especially early learners. Your mind is at its busiest at the age of three, so that is kind of the target age where they can learn as much information as possible.
"The book and the mat, not only are they great fun and colourful and they have great sounds and a lot of interactions, the child will learn a really important message and it could prevent an accident from happening on farms.
The project is in the final prototype stage and Carmody is hoping for funding to take it off the ground.
“The ultimate dream is to get on the Late Late Toy Show. If I could get on there, then that’s it, I’m done."