Dr Edmond Harty holding his UL Alumni Award

Growing up in County Kerry, Dr Edmond Harty has been involved in the dairy farm equipment industry his entire working and academic life. Today, he is CEO and Technical Director of Dairymaster, one of Ireland's most successful indigenous technology companies. Through Edmond's leadership and, in particular, the advances and innovations he has introduced, Dairymaster is now a world leader in technology for dairy farming. 

Edmond graduated the from University of Limerick in 1997 with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Just a year later, in 1998, Edmond joined Dairymaster, a company founded by his father, Ned in 1968 in Causeway, Co Kerry. Dairymaster's focus is on making farming more profitable, enjoyable and sustainable and at the company, Edmond and his colleagues apply physics, chemistry, mechanics, software, electronics and fluid dynamics to the industry. 

Today, Dairymaster is regarded as the world leader in the development and manufacture of labour saving, automated devices for the global dairy industry. Dairymaster employs 300 people in the areas of R&D and high-end manufacturing to produce hi-tech gadgets and equipment for farmers in 40 countries around the world. Edmond's concentration is always on future possibilities, scientifically developed and proven. The level of patent applications (over 45 so far) speaks to his commitment to innovation. The company is very focused on the export market and has customers in more than 40 countries, including the US, Germany, UK, Japan, New Zealand and Russia.  

Dairymaster's innovative product range encompasses five key areas: Milking Equipment; Automated Feeding Systems; Hydraulic Manure Scrapers; Cow Fertility Monitors; and Milk Cooling Tanks. By milking each cow an average of one minute faster than the competition, Dairymaster's state-of-the-art milking equipment delivers 5% more yield in scientific trials and. In turn, this superior milk-out, natural milking and a focus on automation allows the dairy farmer to make smarter management decisions. The range of automated feeding systems identifies each animal via a chip in the cow's ear tag and its Smart Feeder System has been recently developed to provide custom-feeding to cows during the dry period. Connection to The Cloud allows remote monitoring of the farm which ensures the correct allocation of energy and minerals within the animal's feed and this subsequently results in fewer health issues for the dairy herd and improved milk yields. 

Dairymaster's hydraulic manure scrapers are recognised as market leaders and provide significant labour and cost-saving efficiencies to farmers, while its recently developed MooMonitor has revolutionised the highly-problematic and costly area of herd fertility. This pioneering nanotechnology monitors animal behaviour on a 24-hour basis and allows those challenged cows to be identified at the earliest possible stage. 

A complementary smartphone app has also been developed which allows the system to be viewed remotely. The addition of the SwiftCool milk-cooling tank to its product portfolio has provided the dairy industry with further opportunities to improve milk production performance and can even advise the farmer when milk has been collected from his farm. 

A Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of Engineers Ireland, Edmond has also completed a PhD where he focused on the area of milking performance. His expertise has been recognised internationally and he was appointed to the top three scientific committees globally in the dairy industry. 

In 2012, Edmond was named the international and overall Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. 

Edmond is married to Síle and they have two young children, Eamonn (5) and Niamh (3). When asked what the best business advice he ever received is, Edmond answers ”If you have a problem, tackle it head on and deal with it. Sort it out as quickly as possible as it will not go away by itself.”