Your hosts Andrew Jones & Neil Greggor, based in the South West of England, are this time joined by Mike Jones, Dairy Technical Manager from UK Agri-Tech Centre, based at the South West Dairy Development Centre (SWDDC) near Shepton Mallet in Somerset. 

As always we start with an introduction to Mike and his background, from starting his career on a dairy farm, managing herds to working with technology in the genetics industry to where he is now managing the different projects at the SWDDC testing technology before it becomes commercially available.

With this podcast we tested new technology of our own, using a recently acquired mobile recording device, so as well as our usual recording around a table we also walk the cows with Mike and talk about the different projects they are currently testing.

With this we had so much great information recorded that rather than one long episode we decided to split the episode into two parts.

In this first part we discuss setup of the SWDDC, the aims of the site, how projects are chosen and developed, as well as on going projects on biodiversity and detecting digital dermatitis with Hoofcount.

This was recorded in April 2024 and all information was correct at the time of recording.