Timeline - Inspiration
[April - May]

Timeline - Ideation

Just from preliminary interviewing, we realized that there was a dire need for the prevention and detection of mastitis. Our wet lab team started work on a bacteriocin treatment, choosing genes based on Dr. Nydam's advice. Our product development team focused on the prevention of mastitis and narrowed their ideas down to a multi-purpose milking nozzle with interchangeable parts. Our CS/ECE subteam focused on the detection of mastitis, creating an app and a microscope attachment. We brought these sketches to experts in the ideation phase.

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  July 15, 2016

  Milkrite

  110 Lincoln St, Johnson Creek, WI 53038

  Milkrite, a division of Avon Rubber and Plastics, is the world’s largest provider of dairy rubber wear, with their core business focused on creating rubber liners used in milking machines. We reached out to Tom Votny, a representative of Milkrite. During our conversation, we learned about the current state of the milking machine market, what technologies have already been developed for milking shells and milking machine liners, how products are typically tested, and how large companies conduct their market research. These insights showed the product development team that their ideas for the milking shell were feasible and alerted them to the other considerations they would have to make in their design. We also learned that farmer feedback is absolutely essential to ensuring that our project as a whole succeeds in the market. We began contacting as many farms as we could to gather that feedback.

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  July 25, 2016

  Muranda Cheese Company

  3075 NY-96, Waterloo, NY 13165

  With product development's sketches for the milking shell and outlines for the CS iPhone app, we started a series of farm visits to gather the feedback that Milkrite had emphasized so strongly. We went to the Muranda Cheese Company in Waterloo, NY, and talked to Blane Murray. Blane told us that our project was especially valuable because it includes a preventative measure for mastitis. We showed him our proposed sketches for the customizable milking shell with various modules, and he indicated that the most useful modules would be the temperature sensor, UV light, iodine spray, and cooler. Blane said that our app would be more useful for bigger and more technologically advanced farms, and referred us to two more farms we could speak to. Blane also pointed out the importance of cost effectiveness. Farmers want to know that our device works, and whether they are going to get a return on their investment. With Blane's suggestions in mind, we went back to Ithaca to make improvements on our product idea and app.

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  July 28, 2016

  Quality Milk Production Services

  240 Farrier Rd, Ithaca, NY 14853

  Nearly two months after our first visit with Daryl Nydam of Quality Milk Production Services, we decided to talk to him again now that our ideas were more fleshed out. We talked to him about the progress of our bacteriocin research, and Dr. Nydam lent us a field guide for mastitis that gave us a solid foundation of how we should move forward with bacteriocin testing. He also agreed to provide us with infected milk samples that we could use as test targets, and genomic preps of Lactococcus lactis and Bacillus subtilis, two promising bacteriocins that required genes too large to synthesize.

  We then spoke to Dr. Nydam about the milking shell that we were developing for the milking machine to aid in the prevention of the disease. He particularly liked the iodine spray, UV light, and cold shock modules. He thought the idea of the cold shock was innovative, and suggested that we talk to more experts to see whether cold shock would be physiologically effective.

  We also spoke to Dr. Nydam about our ideas for the app. He recommended some academic literature that would help us with the economic analysis of treating or culling a cow. He was fascinated by the somatic cell counter and urged us to further pursue that option. While there are tests like the California Mastitis Test that already allow farmers to quickly detect mastitis, this new innovation could change the way the disease is approached and dealt with by farmers.

  Dr. Nydam praised us for choosing a project in the dairy industry because of the strong agricultural presence in New York, along with the connections that Cornell has. Overall, Dr. Nydam emphasized something that everyone we have met has said: farmers want ease and effectiveness. We kept that in mind through the rest of our project.

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  August 1, 2016

  Windstott Farm

  839 Indian Field Road, Genoa, NY 13071

  The first farm recommended to us by Blane Murray was Windstott Farm, a 130-cow farm located in Genoa, NY. Unlike other farms that we had been to, this farm was a robot farm, and we were excited to gain a different perspective on the needs of dairy farms. We spoke to the owner, Bill Kilcer. He began implementing robotic milking machines around 7 years ago. Robot farms require very little human interaction--cows step into the machine as they need to, and sensors detect its teats before latching on. We watched the process and noticed that the iodine is automatically sprayed after milking, unlike other farms where a person applies it manually. Bill told us that our ideas of having a temperature sensor, flow rate sensor, iodine spray, and indicator built into the shell were already incorporated into the robots. He also said that our app would not be as helpful for him because all the data that the milk samples are tested for, such as conductivity, temperature, and amount of fat and protein, are already stored into a computer. This feedback made us realize that our idea would be most helpful for bigger traditional dairy farms.

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  August 2, 2016

  Scipio Springs Dairy

  2049 Mosher Rd, Union Springs, NY 13160

  Scipio Springs Dairy is a much larger farm with 800 cows and is set up like a traditional milking parlor, with rows 12 cows parallel to each other. We met with Bill Morgan, who supervises operations of the dairy farm, and the herd manager of the farm, allowing us to get a more well-rounded feedback on our wet lab, product development, and app components of our project. Bill was extremely interested in implementing bacteriocins on his farm instead of using traditional antibiotics. He was impressed by our modular idea for the shell because he believed that it was an all-encompassing prevention to mastitis. Bill believed that the UV light would be a great alternative to the traditional use of heat because heat changes the functionality of the proteins in the milk as well as the milk’s flavor. He also liked the idea of the temperature sensor because gram negative bacteria mastitis typically causes an increase in temperature. Using a temperature sensor would be better than the conventional way of finding out that the mastitis is caused by gram negative bacteria visually because by the time the cause is found, the damage to the cow and its milk is already done. Overall, Bill Morgan was supportive of our idea, and was interested in trying out our prototype and app once we finalized them.

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  August 4, 2016

  Dairy One Co-op Inc

  720 Warren Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850

  Dairy One is a dairy data management company that assists farmers in making decisions on their farms. Blane Murray from the Muranda Cheese Company uses Dairy One’s services, and referred us to the company. We spoke with John Tauzel and James Zimmermann primarily for feedback on our app. Dairy One supported the Somatic Cell Counter idea for its innovative idea and convenience. For the cost calculator, they noted that calculating the overall profit/loss of the farm rather than looking at individual cows would be more beneficial. They suggested that the cow data show the effectiveness of the farmer’s practices, so that the farmer can review productivity and make long term decisions.