INNOVATIONS
Peace of mind By Samantha Tennent
Statistics from FMG show around 30% of milk claims are due to antibiotics contaminating milk.
C
ontamination is a headache for any farmer, no matter what stage it gets discovered, but Nathan and Lois Smith have developed a clever solution to reduce the chances of contamination happening. “It was during the once-a-day conference in Nelson earlier this year, FMG was talking about how often they deal with contaminated milk claims and I thought there has to be an easy way to reduce the risk,” Nathan says. “I came home and connected with our local electrician, and we designed a device that easily shows you from the milking area which direction the vat tap is, and whether the milk is going into the vat or not. “It had to be safe for cows, I didn’t want any risks of stray voltage, and I knew it had to be easy to install.” Keeping it simple, they have called the device Vat Guard and built a plug-and-play system that farmers can install themselves. It has colour coded lights that you can see in the milking area to show which way the tap is pointed. “It’s another form of visual communication and protects farmers from grading. There’s no questioning which way to tap is, or having to go check to be sure,” he says. The first prototype was built in their shed at home in Turakina, near Whanganui. They installed it in their herringbone and built another for his brother Kane Brisco, who has been promoting the device on his Facebook page Farm Fit NZ. “We’ve had farmers contact us through Facebook or over the phone, and one guy ordered one straight after he had a mishap. One of the team went to change the tap over but got waylaid and forgot what he was doing. “They caught it in time but the stress could have easily been avoided,” he says.
Lois and Nathan Smith developed Vat Guard, a simple device that reduces the risk of contamination from antibiotics.
“It’s a great tool for sheds that have more than one person milking, making sure it’s clear what is happening with the vat tap.” They are managing to turn orders around within a week or so, with their electrician building his components in the evenings after work and Nathan and Lois putting the rest of the system
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