Fredericton, New Brunswick-based Emergence client, SomaDetect, “has made a technological breakthrough that will help farmers more closely monitor the health and reproductive status of their cows,” according to Huddle, the online site that “tells the stories of the creative, innovative and interesting entrepreneurs working in New Brunswick and throughout the Maritimes“.
According to Huddle, SomaDetect CEO Bethany Deshpande says their development is a major innovation in the global dairy industry, and involves new advanced technology that detects the presence of progesterone, protein, fat trace antibiotics and somatic cell counts in raw milk without the need for reagents or consumables.
“This means farmers using the technology will be able to monitor the reproductive status and health of their herd, and ensure the high quality of their milk supply for consumers”.
“This goes far beyond what we believed was possible with this technology,” says Deshpande. “We began testing these experimentally and were shocked by how rapidly we were able to have very strong results.”
Our development provides reassurance to farmers that when issues arise, they will know about it. The development reduces the penalty to dairy farmers and acts as part of their on-farm quality assurance program.”
Detecting the presence of progesterone in milk will allow SomaDetect to provide dairy farmers with accurate information on when a cow is in heat and the optimum time to inseminate. According to the company, approximately two-thirds of heats are undetected on dairy farms.
Being able to catch issues like these can be a major benefit to dairy farmers. The company says it guarantees farmers wouldn’t have to pay the stiff penalties if the bad milk was brought to the processing plant.” It’s also an affordable solution”, said Canadian farmer. J.W. Dykstra.
“SomaDetect has created something for dairy farmers that I can easily use without having to spend money on big, expensive equipment or pay to have each of my cows tested every month,” he says.
SomaDetect is one of ten Emergence clients that participate in our “Critical Path Team Mentorship” program, which was launched based on an understanding that effective support to companies has been demonstrated to increase their success and survival rates. We believe nothing surpasses experience when it comes to making key strategic decisions!
The Emergence team mentorship service is modelled after the highly-regarded MIT Venture Mentoring Service.
Our mentors are an elite group of professionals, carefully selected for their expertise in business formation, operations, product development, and commercialization, in addition to their skills as advisors and their desire and ability to give back. Click here to meet our mentors!
Their careers represent a wide range of experience, such as founders, CEOs, chief technical officers, and executives of companies. They bring a wealth of entrepreneurial experience and contacts across a broad range of industries and markets. Our mentors participate in the mentorship program for many reasons, including the intellectual appeal of this work and the collegial team approach Emergence uses to address each entrepreneur’s needs.