eCow Developments Ltd

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Professor Toby Trevor Fury Mottram   Research Interests   Wireless sensor networks Scottish Enterprise grants  £70k in 2008, Technology Strategy Board smart award £90k in 2012, now self-funded from revenue at eCow Ltd.  www.ecow.co.uk plus £180k from eCow Ltd family investors between 2007 and 2013 TSB Smart Grant 2014 £90k to develop ECow Web Services Measuring lameness and mobility score by analysis of non-invasive data Technology Strategy Board Smart grant 2011 now in license arrangement with ATL Ltd. BBRSC pathfinder award 2013-14 to identify IP licensees for inline milk progesterone monitoring to improve fertility management Soil drainage management using integrated sensing and feedback       - project in development with internal funds at RAU.   Posts Held   2012-Present  Douglas Bomford Trust Chair in Farm Mechanisation at the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester.  Co-opted member of the Farm Animal Welfare Council 2014.  Member of the EIP-AGRI experts group for EU Commission.   2010- 2013      Coordinator of Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research and Development projects for Defra this is a £12.7 m programme to improve the UK inventory (part-time)   2009 - now      Founder and Chief Technology Officer of eCow Ltd, based in Exeter.  Employs 8 people manufacturing rumen telemetry. The eBolus won the Innovation Prize at the Royal Welsh Show 2013 and farmBolus was Highly Commended at the Oxford Farming Conference 2014.   2007-2009       Technical Authority to the Intermediary Technology Institute Techmedia Ltd Condition Based Monitoring Programme.  The inventions won the Silver Medal for Innovation at the Royal Highland Show 2009.  I invented equipment for predicting calving and hypocalcaemia and detecting oestrus.  I founded eCow ltd.  Www.ecow.co.uk to manufacture collars for conducting research in cow management.   2005 - 2007     Programme Manager for Condition Based Monitoring for ITITechmedia Ltd., Glasgow developing a wireless sensor network for dairy cow health management.  I laid out the research objectives for the programme and commissioned the research.  I also consulted for  Veterinary Laboratories Agency to develop a breath sampler.   1998 – 2005    Project Leader (Principal Scientist), Silsoe Research Institute, Bio-Engineering Division, Developing non-invasive methods of monitoring dairy cow health and fertility automatically.  Set up the first biosensors laboratory in the Institute.  Developed sensing systems for ketosis, mastitis, nutritional status and progesterone (for ovulation prediction).  Set up Well Cow Ltd.                                     1989.1998          Project Leader (Senior Scientist), Silsoe Research Institute (Projects – Design methodology for robotic milking, Teat inspection systems for robotic milking, electronic nose to detect oestrus in dairy cows)     Education and Qualifications   1993 Chartered Engineer by Institution of Agricultural Engineers 1992 PhD Automation of Milking,  Cranfield University 1987 MSc Agricultural Machinery Engineering,  Silsoe College, Cranfield University 1986 BA (Hons) First Class Agriculture and Engineering, Open University Recent Refereed Publications (50 in total, 20 patents )   C Turner, H Knobloch , J Richards , P Richards, T Mottram, D Marlin, M Chambers, 2012,  Development of a device for sampling cattle breath, Biosystems Engineering, Volume 112, Issue 2, June 2012, Pages 75–81   N Phillips, Mottram, T, Poppi D, Mayer D,  and  McGowan M.R, 2010, Continuous monitoring of ruminal pH using wireless telemetry, Animal Production Science, 2010, 50, 72-77.   Toby Mottram, John Lowe, Michael McGowan, Nancy Phillips, 2008, Technical Note: A wireless telemetric method of monitoring clinical acidosis in dairy cows,  Computers and electronics in Agriculture, Volume 64, Issue 1, November 2008,  45-48.   N.J. Phillips, T. Mottram, J. Lowe, D.P. Poppi ,D and M.R. McGowan, 2008, Monitoring Ruminal pH by Datalogger Using Wireless Telemetry,  Proc. Aust. Soc. Anim. Prod. 2008 Vol. 27   P C Garnsworthy, L L Masson, A L Lock, T T Mottram, Variation of milk citrate with stage of lactation and de novo Fatty Acid synthesis in dairy cows.  J Dairy Sci. 2006 May ;89 (5):1604-12   Dewhurst, R. J., Evans, R. T., Mottram, T. T., Spanel, P., Smith, D. (2001) Assessment Of Rumen Processes By Selected-Lon-Flow-Tube Mass Spectrometric Analysis Of Rumen Gases. Journal Of Dairy Science 84 (6), 1438-1444.   Xu. Y.F., Velasco-Garcia, M. and Mottram, T.T. (2004) Quantitative analysis of the response of an electrochemical biosensor for progesterone in milk, Biosensors and Bioelectronics,   20 (10):2061-70.   Professional memberships Fellow of Institution of Agricultural Engineers Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Member of British Society of Animal Science (I represent BSAS at Society of Biology Meetings) Member of the American Dairy Science Association Member of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers