Three finalists have been shortlisted for this year's Royal Dairy Innovation Award and will be vying for the prestigious title when it is judged at Dairy-Tech.

The finalists have been selected from more than 25 entries made by an online submission to the event organisers, RABDF.

The award, sponsored by the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) is presented to a company exhibiting at the event with a practical product or service that is likely to be the most significant innovation for the future of dairying.

This year's finalists include:

1. National Milk Records (NMR) with GenoCells

GenoCells is an innovative herd management and herd improvement service centred exclusively around genomic testing. The main innovative feature is the ability to get individual somatic cell counts (SCC) for cows from a bulk milk sample rather than individually sampling each cow during the milking. This simplifies managing sub-clinical mastitis, bulk somatic cell counts (penalty bindings), and selective dry cow therapy.

2. Bimeda with ImmunIGY Bovine IgG

ImmunIGY Bovine IgG is a novel test that checks whether a calf (up to 42 days old) has received sufficient antibodies from the colostrum (IgG levels). The blood test is easy to conduct using a lancet and directly measures IgG levels using a lateral flow device (LFD), with results in just 10 minutes. Calves receiving insufficient, high-quality colostrum in the correct timeframe will suffer from Failure of Passive Transfer (FPT) and have been shown to be more susceptible to disease and poorer performance in terms of daily live weight gains. Farms that routinely monitor IgG status have been shown to suffer significantly lower rates of failure of passive transfer, highlighting the importance of monitoring.

3. DeLaval with DeLaval Plus

DeLaval Plus is an online platform that uses the most advanced level of farm management analysis to give farmers the tools to turn all their farm data, including milking data, into actionable, easily understood information. This helps users make fast, accurate decisions that benefit their animals, workforce, and profitability. In addition to analysing performance, it can anticipate future outcomes so farmers can plan and act accordingly.

The three finalists will be asked to present their product at Dairy-Tech to a panel of independent judges at 9:15am on the Innovation Hub.

This year's judges are dairy farmer and competition chair Tim Downes, CIEL's head of innovation and animal health, Dr. Grace O'Gorman, and Chris Howarth, global sales director for smaXtec, which was last year's winning product.

The winner will be announced at 15:35 pm on the Innovation Hub and will receive a signed framed certificate and trophy from the Princess Royal later this year.