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KEENAN Open Day: The Highlights

KEENAN Ireland Sales Team

On Tuesday, June 18, we opened up the gates to our headquarters in Borris, Co. Carlow, for the annual KEENAN Open Day!

Speaking on the day, James Brough, UK and IRE General Manager said, “The KEENAN Open Day is an event that allows us to showcase the full product range for KEENAN as well as the latest innovation in the group. We showcase the machines, we showcase the controller, we showcase Alltech and also a few other exhibitors on the day”.

Overall, the day was a huge success with over 200 people, including Irish dairy and beef farmers, walking through our doors.

Live demonstrations

A key highlight of the KEENAN Open Day is having the opportunity to give live machine demonstrations. This year, attendees were able to see both the KEENAN MechFiber bale handler and the KEENAN Vertical Auger machines in action.

Both diet feeders were fitted with the new KEENAN Controller, in combination with InTouch Daily TMR Manager software, which ensures a consistent ration for feeding livestock.

Our Head of InTouch nutrition, Cathal Bohane, took to the stage to give a presentation on the importance of accuracy and consistency when mixing and feeding rations. He also demonstrated how silage quality varies across the clam face and leads to variability in ration quality. 

KEENAN MechFiber380 bale handler

Are you a farmer that is looking to feed large numbers of animals in a short amount of time? Well, the MechFiber 380 could be the machine for you…

With a payload of 9,000 kilograms, this diet feeder is capable of feeding up to 150 dairy cows or more than 350 fattening cattle for 24 hours with a single load!

This machine comes with oil bath drives, which means no damage is caused to moving parts during heavy work — optimising strength and reliability. Find out more here.

KEENAN VA2-24S

Is your space limited? Is mobility of prime importance to you? Then the VA2-24S, one of our newer machines, may be just what you’re looking for.

The capacity of our Vertical Auger machines ranges from 18 centimeters3 to 44 centimeters3, with twin auger models making up the VA2 range. This machine is the shorter option of the KEENAN Vertical Auger 24m3 range and comes equipped with InTouch as standard to optimize the mix.

Find out more here.

Panel discussion

Once the live demonstrations were over, attendees gathered to attend a technical and informative panel discussion, which was led by InTouch feeding specialist, Seamus Callanan.

After all, it’s all well and good listening to us, but it’s best not to just take our word — the farmers are the real experts! On our farmer panel this year was:

  • Pat O’Donovan from Whitegate, Co. Cork: Pat runs a 160-dairy cow herd on a 58-hectare grazing platform.
  • Kevin O’Hanlon from Co. Wexford: Kevin is a dairy farm manager whose farm is home to 170 spring- and autumn-calving cows.
  • James Kent from Blarney, Co. Cork: James operates a spring-calving pedigree Limousin herd of 170.

Pat and Kevin both explained how they achieved increased animal performance and improved herd health, with reduced retained placentas and reduced cases of milk fever.  James also discussed how he achieved increased performance through increased feed efficiency.

Factory tours

It’s not often that we get external visitors into our factory, so the KEENAN Open Day is a great opportunity for us to reveal exactly how a KEENAN diet feeder is manufactured. We have approximately 120 employees currently working at our site in Borris — including administrative staff — and on average make around 10 machines per day.

Interested to know what happens at each stage of the production line? Find out more here: What takes place behind the scenes at the KEENAN factory in Co. Carlow?

Ag-tech innovation

KEENAN were joined by a host of exhibitors on the day, including Ireland’s leading ag-tech and farm support service companies Moocall, Herdwatch, InTouch, Samco, Grasstec and Embrace Farm. Exhibitors were able to showcase their latest innovations and farming services throughout the day. 

Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, also attended the KEENAN Open Day and spoke about the potential of KEENAN.

“I think what’s most exciting about what’s taking place here is innovation, such as changes we can see with the machine, of course becoming carbon accredited and also in the future, you will be seeing KEENAN machines that are able to facilitate larger herds,” commented Dr. Lyons. “So, there’s a lot of excitement now having KEENAN fully part of the Alltech family.”

Want to know more?

Don’t worry if you missed this year’s KEENAN Open Day, you can find all the event highlights here: KEENAN Open Day Highlights

(PS. We are already busy making plans for next year…#KEENANOpenDay2020).

For more information, please contact us on +353 (0) 59 977 1200 or email keenaninfo@alltech.com.

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