With 13 halls filled to the brim with technology, equipment, and solutions for the livestock sector, visitors to EuroTier 2024 had plenty to take in during the four-day event
A total of 2219 exhibitors, 65% of them coming from outside Germany, attended the biennial event joining 120,000 visitors from all around the world.
The fast pace of technology was evident around the stands with numerous forms of artificial intelligence incorporating the star attractions.
From calf feeders that talk to humans reporting how their animals are performing, to technology that can decipher the sex of chicks within milliseconds, EuroTier had it all.
No show would be complete without highlighting advances in autonomous farm machinery, and this was also evident at EuroTier.
The big questions farmers were asking themselves as they left the show was would they ever be able to justify such huge capital expenditure on advancing technology, and would some of it ever enter commercial markets?
Some of the medal-winning technology around EuroTier included:
GOLD MEDAL WINNERS
Cow-Welfare: Flex Air Stall
Taking one of the four EuroTier gold medals awarded by the DLG was a revolutionary new air-flow system designed to keep dairy cows cool while reducing the effects of heat stress.
Danish company Cow-Welfare launched its new Flex Air Stall, which is an air supply system integrated into its already-popular Flex Stall range of cubicles.
Fresh outdoor air is sucked into the animal housing via a hose ventilation system and forwarded into the cubicles under pressure. The fresh air is then forced directly into the lying area at an angle of 45 degrees from five openings drilled in the upper cubicle bar. This creates an ambient ventilated area for the cows to lie in comfortably, whilst reducing heat stress, and increasing productivity. This innovation also won the EuroTier Animal Welfare Award 2024.
Orster-Technik: CalfGPT
CalfGPT is a new management tool that allows farmers to check on the health status of individual calves by using simple voice commands.
Based on the leading AI system from OpenAI, the system enables the farmer to enquire about individual calves using a voice connection via the farm’s own WiFi.
The farmer can receive specific information about the calves vocally and via alarms on a mobile phone or tablet in direct response. Pre-formulated commands are not necessary and new information concerning individual calves can also be sent directly and verbally to CalfGPT for further documentation.
The system gathers the data from the company’s range of calf feeders, to which it can be connected via Bluetooth.
SILVER MEDALS
Urban: Sip Control
Urban SipControl is a system for determining the welfare of suckling calves at automatic feeders by recording the animal’s sucking strength and the individual swallowing processes.
It uses a high-resolution, inductive flow sensor to scan the pulsating volumetric flow that occurs in the suction line of suckling calves at microsecond intervals.
During the drinking process, the number of swallows, the volume consumed per swallow and the calf’s sucking strength are recorded and evaluated with high precision. The length of the suckling process can be adapted to the individual animal as required.
Deviations from the animals’ individual sucking patterns can be used for predictive health monitoring.
Siloking: Heavy-duty magnet
Siloking introduced a new removable magnetic system on its feeder wagons that detects metal in the rations.
There are plenty of feeder wagons on the market with metal detectors, but operators must remove the foreign objects manually, often causing injury to themselves.
In the system designed by Siloking, the heavy-duty magnet can now be removed together with its surrounding housing and all adhering foreign bodies.
For cleaning of the permanent magnet, the operator has to place it close to the discharge door. When it is open, the outer housing can be easily unlocked and pulled outwards. Separated foreign particles can safely be removed and disposed of outside the mixing hopper.
Weidemann: Follow me tool
Weidemann introduced its ‘Follow me’ assistance system that makes working with their Hoftrac wheeled loaders considerably easier.
The follow me function enables the operator to descend from the vehicle and have the Hoftrac follow them autonomously to the location of the next job.
The operator can command the Hoftrac to follow with a hand-held device and fix it in position at the destination, after which it can follow on again to the next point.
In this process, a button must be continuously pressed due to safety reasons. A virtual safety zone is established around the machine. This ensures that the operator and the area around the machine are accordingly protected.
NEW MACHINES
Strautmann: Primus 600
Strautmann launched the Primus 600 self-propelled feeder wagon powered by a six-cylinder 205hp (151kW/205hp) FPT turbo diesel engine, which also can be adapted to HVO.
This new Primus 600 has a completely new design from the chassis up to machine control, and has a mixing volume of 17 to 22 cubic metres.
A newly designed Smart Feed Cab has been added with cameras at the rear of the wagon and in the mixing auger.
The new Strautmann Feed Control system enables direct access to all important machine functions, combining its weighing device, machine information, control terminal and camera monitor in one device.
For added traction, the Primus can be equipped with four-wheel drive on request. The intelligent steering control with four-wheel steering, crab steering and tail swing suppression are now standard equipment elements.
The new machine stands from 2.74m tall on single tyres, and has a pick-up width of 2m from a fodder height of up to 5.50m. The conical funnel behind the milling cutter ensures perfect, structure-protecting and fast material flow to the elevator mounted behind the milling cutter.
The two Strautmann IMS mixing augers (Intensive Mix System) enable a fast, homogeneous and smooth mixing result in the mixing container.
Trioliet: Triomatic WP 2 600
In order to boost feeding efficiency on the farm Trioliet has doubled the maximum capacity of its Triomatic feed robots to 6 cubic metres on the new WP 2 600 model.
This new machine has a maximum load capacity of 2,000kgs, making it more suitable for the bigger farms with 600 to 800 cows.
Using the Trioliet Batch&Traffic manager, it is also possible to scale the system’s capacity to a maximum of four robots, making automatic feeding accessible for farms with 1,200 to 2,500 cows.
The mixing tub of the Triomatic WP 2 600 is equipped with two vertical augers made of wear-resistant stainless steel.
Even small quantities are homogeneously mixed thanks to the Dual Flow principle. With the help of counter blades in the mixing tub and knives on each auger, the feed is also well chopped.
Energy is saved on the Triomatic WP machines when dispensing, as only the auger closest to the discharge gate is activated. The second auger is only engaged when the feed amount falls below a certain level. Discharge is done via a cross-conveyor belt.
All settings can be entered directly via the large touchscreen on the robot, but also via a computer, smartphone, or tablet.
The feed robot is loaded by a Trioliet feed kitchen of choice: the Triomatic T10, T20, T30, or T40.
Kuhn: Profile 1.CM
Kuhn exhibited some models of its new Profile 1.CM range of single-auger trailed mixer wagons with dual-side distribution.
With a more compact design than the existing 1.L series, the five new M models are engineered for farmers dealing with significant width and height restrictions, enabling efficient distribution in any type of barn.
Available in sizes ranging from 8, 9, 10, 12, and 13 cubic metres, the Profile 1.CM series can feed up to 100 dairy cows in a single pass.
Equipped with a single vertical auger, the 10m3 model stands at less than 2.80 metres tall. With a width of just 2.43 to 2.45 metres, these new models can handle tight feed passages.
ManuRob: Loadix autonomous handler
French company ManuRob showed its Loadix autonomous handler at EuroTier.
With a hefty price tag of €359,000, this machine comes with two loading attachments and is initially designed for the biogas industry. Livestock farm use is also anticipated with the next version of the loader sometime in 2025.
Powered by a Lithium LFP battery, the Loadix can lift two tonnes up to 4.1m and uses GPS RTK to move around. It detects any obstacles via LiDAR and has cameras to identify its load material. Two electric motors power the transmission and the hydraulic lift pump.
The company says the machine will work between six and 24 hours before recharging, depending on the material and distance it has to travel.
To entice customers to purchase, ManuRob offers a buy-back programme where it will refurbish machines after 10 to 15 years of use for resale.
Other autonomous machines
Lely’s autonomous zero grazing machine, Lely Exos, created a lot of attention on the stand. This machine cuts the fresh grass, transports it to the shed and distributes the grass to the cows.
A number of machines are already operating in the Netherlands with further sales expected across Europe and beyond next year.
And Kuhn had its Aura robotic mixing and feeding machine on display. The Aura can load itself with silage via its loading head, weigh and add other ingredients, mix the ration and deliver to the cows in the barn.
Aura has a three cubic metre mixing tank equipped with two vertical augers. For increased longevity of the machine, the lower part of the tank and 100% of the mixing augers are built with K-NOX technology, which guarantees a service life six times longer than the steel grades traditionally used on mixers.