VistaMilk Research Ireland Centre has announced a new research programme focused on optimising milking technology to the individual cow.

The multi-year project builds on an industry collaboration with Dairymaster that has been in place since Phase I of Vistamilk.

Based at Teagasc Moorepark, Fermoy, VistaMilk is Ireland’s national centre for science and digital innovation in pasture-based dairy, delivering research, tools and validated technologies to improve sustainability, productivity and global competitiveness. It is now in Phase II.

Dairymaster manufactures a range of dairy equipment for milking, feeding, and more.

Milking machine settings

The overarching objective of the new project is to optimise milking equipment by tailoring machine settings to individual cow lactation physiology.

By aligning milking technology more closely with animal-level characteristics, the research aims to deliver benefits for farmers, milking operators, cow comfort, and milk quality.

The research will explore how key milking machine settings combined with new and developing sensor technologies interact with individual cow characteristics such as milk flow, over-milking, cow comfort, stage of lactation, and teat traits during routine milking.

By combining new data with extensive findings from VistaMilk Phase I, the project will use advanced data analysis and machine learning to better understand how individual cows respond to different milking settings.

This is intended to support the development of smarter, adaptive and more responsive milking strategies to improve efficiencies, animal welfare and milk quality.

Dairymaster will work closely with the research team to support on-farm studies and help translate research findings into practical solutions.

John Upton, funded investigator with VistaMilk and Teagasc researcher, said: “The research-industry collaboration demonstrates the value of long-term partnerships that provide a strong scientific continuity from VistaMilk Phase I, while allowing teams under Phase II to move decisively towards cow-specific optimisation and real-world impact.”

 John Daly, research and innovation manager at Dairymaster, said: “The project will help ensure that future milking technologies are not only more efficient, but also more responsive to animal needs and farmer objectives.”

Phase II

Phase II of the VistaMilk Research Ireland Centre launched in Co. Cork last year (April 3).

At the launch, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon said: “It is critical that we continue to invest, though initiatives like VistaMilk, to ensure that we remain global leaders.

According to VistaMilk, it secured more than €20 million in competitive EU funding for the first phase of the research centre. It set a similar target for Phase II.

Vistamilk brings together 13 Irish research institutions with industry expertise from across the agri-food, information and communications technology, and data science sectors.

It is is co-funded by Research Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).