Waikato Innovation Park - Post-milking technologies

Waikato Innovation Park was established as a growth hub for agricultural biotech businesses. Over 50 companies are currently on its site at Ruakura. All are involved in researching, developing and collaborating on agri-tech and agri-bio projects.

Three separate innovations developed at the park are focused on the science of collecting, testing and cooling milk.

1. NZ Cold specialises in offering New Zealand dairy farmers innovative and energy efficient new solutions for chilling milk on the farm. Bringing new levels of chilling performance while offering an early payback period on the equipment cost. They offer solutions to:

- Snap chill milk on any size farm

- Generate preheated hot water up to 210 litres per hour

- Improve milk quality through snap chilling

- Save on power costs by only running one chiller unit per dairy shed and running it on off peak power.

They offer thermal energy storage, sensible energy storage and online pre-chilling.

For more information go to: www.nzcold.co.nz

2. Sensortec specializes in developing and selling automated on-line milk testing systems for dairy sheds that monitor milk quality and cow health. Sensortec sells the world first direct on-line sensor for somatic cell count to help diagnosis of mastitis infections. CellSense units are sold in New Zealand and Australia. They are easy to use, and do not use harmful reagents. The level of somatic cells in the milk is displayed at the end of each cow's milking and results are available immediately so the farmer can take action if required. The cow's status can be recorded for later analysis.

The cell count system is also installed on robotic milking machines manufactured by Lely in Holland.

For more information go to: www.sensortec.co.nz

3. The Eliminator replaces the receiving can in the diary shed. It is said to improve milk quality, eliminate foaming problems, reduce fat damage, stabilise the vacuum, reduce bacterial growth and reduce energy costs.

It can be retrofitted into any milking system. The system is designed to use stored energy for chilling through chilled water or ice bank technology. It also eliminates foaming problems by exposing the milk to a vacuum under cooling to remove the air. Eliminator's cooling process is passive and the milk doesn't get pumped until it is already cold - resulting in 40% less fat damage. The Eliminator was developed for the diary industry, but also has applications within other industries where the rapid cooling of liquids is critical to the quality of the product.

For more information go to: www.elimhold.co.nz