ANIMAL TECH 2023 Gold Medals and ProfiPress Publishers Editorial Awards

Prizes for the best exhibits of the year have their owners. Five Gold Medals were presented at the opening ceremony, three prizes were also handed out by editorial boards of professional periodicals.

Three ANIMAL TECH 2023 Gold Medals were awarded by the evaluation committee in the category of Machinery and Equipment for Livestock Production. The company AGE s.r.o. received the award for its exhibit AGE – VENT PIGS, which brings an innovative approach to the management of stables divided into multiple departments. It is a control unit that caters for ventilation, feeding, weighing of animals, water provision and lighting in all the compartments in the shed.

The company FARMTEC a.s. won the award for the UniBox calf box. It is a collapsible universal box for individual and group housing of calves in the milk-feeding period up to 3 months of age. The boxes are easy to dismantle and are installed under the roof in airy calf houses with a flat solid floor. They allow direct visual and tactile contact and are designed for individual, pair and group housing of calves.

The third ANIMAL TECH 2023 Gold Medal in the category of Machinery and Equipment for Livestock Production was awarded to Cernin s.r.o. for its exhibit NESENKA NZ 7. 

NESENKA NZ 7. This universal semi-supported feeding and lining machine prepares and deposits a lining mixture of separate and limestone. It is unbeatable in price and wide range of applications and can be used for classification, cutting and mixing of hay bales, straw, haylage, silage, separate, limestone, compost, sand, and the like.

The ANIMAL TECH 2023 Gold Medal in the Feed, Feed Mixtures and Feed Preparations category was recognized to the exhibitor Výzkumný ústav živočišné výroby (Research Institute of Animal Production) for their exhibit Feed mixture for laying hens containing hemp and flax seeds from the manufacturer Hansa C.B. spol. s r.o. This complete feed mixture for hens contains 4% hemp seed from non-psychotropic hemp varieties and 6% extruded linseed. Thanks to a new formulation, this mixture improves the health of hens and positively influences egg quality.

In the Machines and Equipment for Crop Production category, the evaluation committee awarded the Gold Medal to the exhibitor K.B.T. PROFTECH s.r.o. for their Kubota BV5160SC25N FW PLUS combination baler with variable chamber from Kubota Corporation. Kubota's combination balers with variable chamber are ideal for baling wavering material with immediate wrapping in film, but can also be used for dry material. The design of the chamber, which consists of five three-layered endless belts around the perimeter, guarantees quality compression of the material. The integrated two-satellite foil wrapper ensures fast automatic wrapping of the finished bales in foil, allowing the fermentation processes to start immediately for quality haylage production.

At the opening of the Brno agricultural fairs, the editors of ProfiPress publishers also traditionally award their prizes. The prize of the weekly Zemědělec (Farmer) was awarded to the exhibitor Výzkumný ústav živočišné výroby (Research Institute of Livestock Production) for their locator of housed animals from the manufacturer JoTio Tech s.r.o. This wireless locator is used for quick and targeted locating of a specific animal in a stall or paddock area while minimising disturbance to other animals in the area. The locator consists of a control and battery module, the interconnection is part of a leather strap. When activated by the user, the device will flash red for a set period of time. The device allows the use of several such activations throughout a single "dairy cow production period" without the need to change or recharge the battery.

The editors of the magazine Náš chov (Our Herd) appraised the company VNT electronics s.r.o. for its exhibit virtual fence with multifunctional collar 'fencee GPS F10'. It is an example of precision farming and a modern, efficient virtual fence solution where animals are controlled and monitored by a smart GPS collar via an app. Thanks to the fencee GPS F10 multifunctional collar you will be able to keep track of all your animals. You will get information about their activity, current position, and health status.

Zemedělský týdeník (Agricultural Weekly) magazine decided to decorate the exhibitor BD Tech a.s. for its ActiWel farrowing pen from the manufacturer Big Dutchman International GmbH. It is a pen with variable barriers and a farrowing cage that provides ideal conditions for sow housing: minimum farrowing pen size of 6.5 sqm, maximum 5 days fixation time after farrowing, resting fixed area for sows with max. 7% perforation of the grating for this area and a minimum of 2.2 m length of the farrowing cage from the trough.  The layout of the pen ensures a resting area for piglets of a size appropriate to the weaning weight of the piglet.