TailJack is an innovative reliable solution allowing farmers to safely milk and treat cows by preventing dangerous kicking. The Tailjack has won several awards including the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena agri safety award at the National Ploughing Championships 2022, and the Engineering and Best Start Up award at the Axa National Dairy Show 2022 and best Agriculture, Horticulture & Forestry invention award at the Tullamore Show 2023.
A major time-consuming frustration facing farmers is cows kicking off milking clusters, particularly freshly calved heifers. Pre-calving parlour training of heifers and calm handling can help minimize milking stress but is often insufficient as some heifers will still need restraint for days, weeks or months. Kickbars and tying of legs with ropes are typical approaches but are only partially effective and pose a risk of injury to milkers.
Growing up on his parents’ farm, Dr Niall O’Leary faced this frustration when milking or treating mastitis and was sometimes on the wrong end of a few painful kicks which have endured in his memory. ‘I discussed with it my father and we began pondering potential novel solutions that would be more effective and found ourselves drawn towards one form of restraint: tail lifting’.
Often when other restraint methods fail, farmers and vets usually lift cows’ tails which is highly effective in restraining cattle from kicking. ‘Whether milking nervous heifers, treating painful teat injuries, castrations or other veterinary procedures, the simple act of tail lifting would invariably prove the most calm and effective restraint method’ according to Niall. However, tail lifting's great drawback is the need for a 2nd person – making the most effective restraint unavailable to lone milkers and a big time sink for those with a ‘spare’ person who needs to hold the tail for the duration of milking out the cow. Additional labour has become a precious and scarce commodity, especially during seasonal calving when heifers need the most restraint.
Niall’s father thought ‘If I can lift a tail, could something be designed to do so for me while I milk or treat the cow?’. The benefits of such a device for milking staff and particularly lone milkers would be significant.
Niall, who did his PhD in farm management and did a post doc on dairy technology, discussed at length the feasibility of such a device with his father. Various design approaches were explored eventually leading to a prototype device which proved highly effective: The Tailjack.
Niall demonstrating the TailJack in action.
The TailJack, made of durable and light stainless steel, works by attaching to a cows' hips providing an anchor from with which the tail can be lifted and held in a raised position. Crucially, the TailJack is easy to apply from the milking parlour floor requiring no climbing.
Prototypes were trialled on the family dairy farm in spring 2022 where 100 heifers calved down. Milking staff began using the TailJack at the beginning of calving and saw the benefits immediately and three more TailJacks were quickly created to meet the demand. The TailJack proved highly effective and exceeded expectations – ‘we didn’t have one heifer that kicked with the TailJack on' according to Niall. Staff quickly learned that once the TailJack was on, it calmed nervous heifers, clusters could be attached safely and “kicking off” of attached clusters, perhaps the biggest irritation of all, ceased. This allowed staff to move on to milking the next cow/heifer in confidence the cluster would not be kicked off. ‘It was not uncommon to see all four TailJacks in use at the same time at the peak of heifer calving’. Essentially the TailJack replaces a 2nd person when dealing with a kicking cow when milking, dry cow treatment, treating mastitis or udder injuries. Keeping the tail elevated and out of the way is also useful when correcting calf malpresentation at birth and reinserting prolapsed uteruses.
To purchase go to Tailjack.com/store.