Written by John Swire
Dairy farms can now receive text messages alerting up to five mobile contacts about low levels of hygiene chemical.
Ecolab Textomatic from UK hygiene chemical distributor, Progiene, is an electronic, low-level alarm system that can monitor six containers at a time for the early detection and intervention for all farm cleaning chemicals, teat dips and footbath solutions. Once chemical drums have reached a level pre-programmed by the users, text messages will be sent out to inform contacts that new supply is needed.
According to Alison Clark, Progiene Dairy Hygiene Business Unit Manager, this new sensor technology was developed to improve the safety and efficiency of monitoring dairy hygiene chemicals, while safeguarding farms from the financial implications of running out of product.
“Running out of hygiene chemical is a huge issue for a lot of farms due to monitoring difficulties. Bulk tank chemical, for example, is the most common hygiene product farms run out of due to its high-volume use and being stored in an area that isn’t frequented very often,” explains Mrs Clark. “Chemical drums tend to be between 200–1,000 litres in capacity and in solid colours so levels can’t be determined from the outside. However, manually assessing the inside of drums, especially those reaching 1,000 litre capacity, comes with huge safety concerns.”
Ecolab Textomatic features a controller box that operates on mains electric and can pick up signals from six sensors at a time. The sensors, which are available for 5-25 litre drums and 200-1,000 litre drums, can be pre-programmed by farmers for what supply level they want to be alerted at. Working on a 3G network, Ecolab Textomatic will send out a text message to up to five contacts about which drum has a low supply and the hygiene chemical it contains. For farms in low mobile signal areas, an aerial antenna can be used to boost signal. A backup LED alarm is also installed on site to alert personnel working close to the unit.
While Ecolab Textomatic is available for purchase, Progiene is offering it for free use to current and new customers of its hygiene products.
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