Dairy innovator, SmaXtec, was crowned the winner of the prestigious Royal Dairy innovation award at the Dairy-tech event at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, recently with its unique water intake monitoring bolus, TruDrinking.

The award is presented to a company exhibiting at the show with a practical product or service providing the most significant innovation for the future of dairying.

This bolus is the first product of its kind to accurately record individual cow water intake, helping farmers to optimise milk production and animal management.

TruDrinking records how often and how many litres of water a cow consumes a day using a bolus in the cows’ reticulum, which measures changes to body temperature after each drinking. The information is then fed back to the farmer in real-time.

The technology can immediately detect any disruption to normal water consumption, which can be an early indicator of emerging health problems or flag an issue with the water supply.

Tim Downes, RABDF council member, who judged this year’s competition with 2022 winner, Michael Halliwell, from CattleEye, and Dr Mark Young, from award sponsors, CIEL, said: “We liked the functionality and behavioural aspect of this novel product which measures water use and volume.

“Water is so important on dairy farms and often not thought about, making this product incredibly valuable for farmers.”

The two runners-up:

UFAC’s Envirolac – A palm oil-free fat supplement for high-yielding dairy cows.

The product has been proven to increase milk yields and quality while offering a lower carbon footprint than palm-oil-based fat supplements.

HerdVision’s Auto Mobility and BCS – provides real-time data on the health and nutrition of a herd.

Using a small digital camera positioned above a race, 3D images are captured and fed back live by integrating with an intelligent online monitoring system. Data is delivered directly to the users’ phone or tablet – and helps support daily management decisions.