The UK Agri-Tech Centre team leaders and partner companies were out in force at UK Dairy Day 2024 event in Telford.
Alongside one of our project partners, Antler Bio, who shared the UK Agri-Tech Centre stand, the team was able to offer insights and support to anyone connected to the dairy industry. The UK Agri-Tech Centre team spoke to a range of people from various backgrounds, including livestock and arable, start-up businesses, training providers, innovators and communications professionals.
The event itself celebrated its 10th anniversary and saw thousands of people flock to the venue on Wednesday, September 11.
Rob Morrison, Head of Farms at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said:
“For our place in this, we’re here not just to showcase the technology but to signpost what’s coming up in the future, help people plan their future and see what the technology is that they’ll be using over the next 5-10 years.
Within the dairy industry the UK Agri-Tech Centre plays a very key role – we act as a catalyst for development, where we can help innovators bring technology through to farmers as quickly as possible, we work with the farmers to gather the ideas and we disseminate what we’ve learned from the innovators.
It’s an ecosystem where we start with the farmer, we produce new technology with innovators and technology companies and bring it back to the market to help educate farmers going forward.”
Helen Brookes, Engagement Director at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, said:
“Events like the UK Dairy Day are really important in order to build awareness of the UK Agri-Tech Centre and to build our brand within the industry.
It also gives us a great opportunity to network and build connections with our colleagues, audiences and areas, to grow the network of opportunities that we know help to develop those projects and drive innovation forward.
The role of the UK Agri-Tech Centre within the dairy sector is really broad depending on the vision of the variety of people that we’re talking to and the variety of businesses we’re working with.
We work across the industry, across academia and we also work with a wide range of farmers to make sure the project, product, services and new ways of working are really disseminated but also developed in feasibility, right the way through to commerciality.”
The event hosted over 280 trade stands and these were automatically entered into the Trade Stand Award Competition, sponsored by Hettle Andrews.
As part of this competition, a showcase of new products exhibitors, which have launched in the past 12 months, were featured in the concourse and were judged by the New Product Competition sponsor, IDEXX.
The UK Agri-Tech Centre is delighted to announce that both the winner, HoofCount, and runner up, Oxi-Tech Solutions, of the New Product Competition, are our project partners who use our dedicated farming facility, the South West Dairy Development Centre, based in Somerset, to trial and progress their equipment.