Why Big Tech Failed at This Simple Farming Task

🐄 Engineer Liam Kampshof turned an early milking-shed prototype into a simple, low-cost sensor now used on 145+ New Zealand farms, catching mastitis early to protect milk quality and payouts!

Liam is a New Zealand tech entrepreneur and founder of Bovonic, makers of QuadSense—a snap-in, battery-powered sensor that measures each teat’s conductivity in real time, compares quarters, and throws a red light in ~30 seconds if mastitis is likely. It retrofits into the short milk tube, has no moving parts, a ~3-year battery life, and costs ~5× less than legacy lab systems—so farmers actually install it. 🐄 Mastitis 101: why manual “stripping” fails at scale and how quarter-level conductivity catches it earlier.

📈 Adoption: ~145 farms (≈2% NZ) in year one; near 5% in early regions; hardware + profitability.

🧭 NZ edge: no subsidies → ruthless ROI; “number-8 wire” practicality meets biomedical chops.

🥛 Macro: NZ = #1 dairy exporter (not producer); EU cell-count standards and antibiotic rules shaping demand.

Connect with the Guest:

Liam Kampshof — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-kampshof

Company (Bovonic / QuadSense): https://bovonic.com

Learn more about NZVC & Hosts

NZVC: https://www.nzvc.co.nz

Mark Pavlyukovskyy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavlyukovskyy/

Hendrik Remigereau: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-remigereau-09a03067/

00:00 — Intro & NZ dairy roots

01:11 — Farm childhood in Waikato & Bay of Plenty

07:16 — Choosing Biomedical Engineering at Auckland

10:16 — London deep-tech: DNA Electronics sepsis project

21:10 — Back to NZ during COVID; MIQ and reset

23:41 — The mastitis problem & why manual checks fail

31:17 — Why quarter-level conductivity is the unlock

37:47 — First prototypes; cowshed raincoat + laptop tests

41:07 — Fieldays validation: 110–120 signups; pre-orders

45:56 — QuadSense demo: sensor in the short milk tube

48:38 — Red-light alerts in ~30s; 3-year batteries; self-install

54:22 — 145 farms live; ~2% market; ~5% in early regions

01:01:27 — NZ collar adoption shows ROI-driven uptake

01:03:41 — Global fit: UK/Ireland → EU → US plan

01:10:52 — Founder moving to UK to open markets

01:19:02 — NZ: top dairy exporter; 95–96% exported

If this sharpened your startup/business brain, hit 👍, drop your questions for Liam below, and subscribe for more New Zealand founder deep-dives.

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