Dairymaster Innovation Awards - rural Ireland is alive and well

Rural Ireland is alive. The huge number of entries received for the Dairymaster Innovation Awards proves it. We got 117 entries from nearly every county in Ireland.

It was not just the number but the quality that impressed the judges. It was a hard job to select the 13 finalists and there were clearly great businesses that narrowly missed out. We will feature them over the coming weeks ahead of the final judging and awards night to be held in the Ballygarry House Hotel Tralee, Co Kerry, on 26 May.

If you want to join the celebration and meet the innovators why not come to the event. Tickets to the awards can be purchased for €55 and include dinner. For further details, call 1890-500 247 or see ruralinnovation.ie.

Farm business category finalists

Samco

Samco Agricultural Manufacturing Ltd, Tuogh, Adare, Co Limerick

www.samco.ie

061 396176

Samco is already well known for its plastic solutions for planting maize. The innovation that reached the final this year is its bag press machine. It helps provide low-cost storage of high-quality fermented feed without the need for drying. Having seen the concept in other countries, Samco used its engineering expertise to create a machine with a large hopper that packs feeds into a plastic bag for storage.

The airtight environment inside the bag creates the perfect conditions for the fermentation process to occur, giving farmers the best quality feed possible. The small surface face of the bag reduces the risk of secondary fermentation as it is less exposed to oxygen than a traditional type pit or clamp system. The Samco bag press is ideal for buffer feeding during the grazing season as it can be used to store forage maize, brewers’ grain, chopped sugar beet and other such products. The bag press is also available with a crimper. The bulk hopper can easily be removed from the body and the crimper can be fitted on to the Samco chassis, which has the capacity to crimp and bag up to 40t per hour of moist grain, beans and other such products.

The bag press gives farmers with no storage area for products more options. Contractors can also use it to store dry grain, bulk fertiliser, chicken litter, miscanthus or other waste products used in energy production facilities.

The machine is priced at €27,000 excluding VAT. Adding a crimper costs an additional €20,000. Samco have five of the machines rented out to contractors in Ireland. The cost per tonne to the farmer works out at around €7/t, depending on the material. Owner Sam Shine sees good markets in Ireland with a lot of potential for export.

Farmageddon Brewing Co-op

25 Ballykeigle Road, Comber, Co Down BT235SD

079-668 09481

Farmageddon Brewery was started by seven friends who shared an interest in home brewing. They developed a taste for US-style and strongly hopped beers and decided to start brewing this type of beer.

One of the members decided to brew all the beer and wine needed for his own wedding and, following the positive feedback from the guests, the idea to open a craft brewery was born. Two of the co-op members took over 5 acres of land from one of their parents. This became the site for the brewery. The grounds are also used to rear rare-breed pigs, which consume the spent grain.

Farmageddon uses modern ingredients, which are brewed using old techniques to create unique beers that are gaining a real following.

The group also brews small batches of limited- edition specials which spark discussion online and within off licences and bars.

They started with a small system consisting of four stainless steel pots to boil the wort and an old stainless steel fridge for processing the grain. They have since increased the size of the system three times. They can now brew 1,000 litres at a time.

The current system was was mostly manufactured out of redundant dairy equipment. Finance has been the main difficulty they have encountered.

The entire brewing system was financed and built by the members of the co-op. This reduced the cost but what should be an easy push button system is currently labour intensive. However, it is constantly being improved as finances slowly become available.

The seven-member co-op is currently exporting to the Republic of Ireland and hopes to get into the rest of the UK, France and beyond.

Connemara Food Ventures

Innagh Valley, Connemara, Co Galway

0872830433

James Cunningham developed Connemara Food Ventures with his wife Deirdre, a nutritionist, to bring a range of functional food to the market. They teamed up with leading seaweed scientist Stefan Kraan and members of the Innagh Valley Trust. They own the restaurant Mulberries in Barna, where the initial testing of products was done. Their first product is called SMRT bar and they have focused on incorporating organic seaweed blend into the five-ingredient health snack. They have been working on it for two years and only started trading last November.

“We are making a sustainable Irish raw material, seaweed, into a trendy and nutrient-rich super food,” James told us.

The challenge was to make the product not taste like seaweed, and they have definitely done that.

“A lot of people can’t believe it is healthy because it tastes so good,” said James.

They got great help from Udaras Na Gaeltachta in Galway, part of which was €15,000 in funding that they had to match to develop the products. They have also received innovation vouchers from Enterprise Ireland.

At the moment the product is sold in 35 shops including health shops and Supervalu stores around Galway and a handful of Dublin shops.

They have outgrown the kitchens in the restaurant and are looking at the options to scale up, including outsourcing. “We are getting great advice from others in the food industry on every aspect,” said James.

Their next product is a nori seaweed-based bread improver that extends shelf life of bread and wheat-based products and adds nutrients. They are also putting seaweeds into confectionary products.

The products are targeted at health-conscious customers and those on gluten-free, dairy-free and reduced-salt diets.

Champion Log Master

Ben Colchester

Drumeen Islands, Urlingford, Co Kilkenny

drumeenfarm@gmail.com

085-166 0593

With 58 acres of broadleaf forestry and a local market for the logs Ben Colchester set about designing and manufacturing a wood processor. When he checked out the market for such machines, he found many designs mainly made in the US, Austria, Germany and Scandinavia. None were made in Ireland and Britain, and all were very expensive.

“What is needed is a design that costs about half the price of imported models, is more robust, simpler and has unique design features that enable it to contend with the types of timber that are economically available for firewood production,” said Ben.

The output of the machine had to be high enough to enable firewood to be produced at a price competitive to other fuels. The Champion Log Master effortlessly splits and cuts logs suitable for wood furnaces, gasifying boilers and domestic stoves.

The principle is that the ram is used to split the lengths of timber. It then pushes the lengths into the machine to be sawn, and the logs when cut are pushed out into the big bags or on to a conveyor to a trailer.

The splitting gate doubles as the mechanism for clamping the logs to hold them tight for sawing. This enables multiple logs to be processed at a time. Using the ram to propel the timber through the machine eliminates the need for two conveyors required by other processors. Since the length is split first it does not fall to another level and then require another conveyor to lift it up to the sawing mechanism.

Timber lengths are held on a loading platform which automatically allows logs to fall, timed with the other mechanisms. The provisional cost will be around €11,000 plus VAT. There will be a range of models to meet the needs of private, commercial and contract firewood producers.

To bring the Champion Log Master to market, Ben has partnered up with Robbie Campion who has a fabricating business.