Nine new appointments at MSD

The data-driven solutions are used by farmers, companies and countries to manage hundreds of millions of animals worldwide.

By putting intelligent, actionable management information into farmers’ hands, their solutions empower them to act in a timely manner to safeguard their animals’ health and wellbeing, while achieving optimal production outcomes for a healthy food supply. Allflex Livestock Intelligence is a livestock portfolio of digital products within MSD Animal Health.

MSD’s Allflex Livestock Intelligence Division will be headed up by Dr William Minchin, Director of MSD Animal’s Health’s Ruminant Business Unit. With excellent technical skills and in-depth market knowledge, William is passionate about using technology to improve on farm decision making, animal welfare and productivity and sees a great opportunity to grow Allflex in Ireland.

“The appointments to our Allflex team reflect MSD’s commitment to grow its digital capabilities and help farmers transform their businesses with industry leading technology and data-driven decision making,” said William. “Allflex provides intelligent, actionable management information to farmers, empowering them to act in a timely manner to safeguard animal health and wellbeing, while achieving efficiency and productivity improvements on farm.

“This is an exciting sector to be in, and we are delighted to have such a highly experienced and ambitious team on board to help us drive awareness of the wide-ranging benefits of Allflex. Technology has a key role to play in ensuring healthier animals and a more sustainable and profitable future for farmers. We warmly welcome our new team members, who have already hit the ground running during a very busy period. We are confident that the team will be instrumental in cementing the Allflex position as a leader in identification and monitoring technology in Ireland.”

Allflex currently supplies over 500 million tags for identifying, tracking and monitoring animals worldwide every year and monitors over 8 million cows daily. The newly appointed team in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland spans sales, technical, customer support and marketing roles and will be responsible for growing and supporting the MSD Animal Health Intelligence division that includes the Allflex and Saber brands.

New appointments:

John Heslin - Market Access and Marketing Manager, Ireland

John joined MSD Animal Health in 2018 as a product manager for the Ruminants division of the business. A part time suckler farmer from Co. Westmeath and a skilled Gaelic footballer playing at club and county level, John undertook a PhD in heifer puberty through Teagasc between 2014 and 2019 prior to joining MSD. He also holds a first-class honours degree in Agriculture from University College Dublin.

Passionate about agriculture, John is particularly interested in driving on-farm efficiencies through technology and minimising the environmental impact of farming. With strong skills in communication, leadership and project management, his new role with MSD Animal Health Intelligence will see him drive awareness of the Allflex SenseHub monitoring device and its capabilities to Irish farmers and industry stakeholders.

Michelle Crowley – Sales Representative (South West)

Michelle Crowley has been involved in the animal health sector since 1997, first holding distribution and manufacturing roles for Boehringer, before joining MSD Animal Health in 2004.  Michelle held various customer-facing roles in the Companion Animals side of the business, before joining MSD Animal Health Intelligence Division.

Michelle holds a BA in Business management, a HND in Equine Science and a Marketing certificate. Based in Clonakility in West Cork, Michelle runs an award-winning dairy farm with her husband Don and has a solid understanding of the agricultural industry. Her new role with MSD Animal Health will see her manage sales and provide customer support in Cork, Kerry, Clare and Limerick, as well as establishing closer working relationships with vets to ensure maximum benefits from the system.

Catherine Heffernan - Customer and Technical Support Manager (Ireland South)

Catherine is an experienced Technical & Customer Service Support Manager with a demonstrated history of working within the agricultural industry, previously holding roles in Lely and Alltech. She is particularly skilled in technical support, training and animal nutrition.

A Kilkenny native, Catherine holds a degree in agricultural science, specialising in dairy business, from University College Dublin. She hails from a dairy farm in Glenmore, Kilkenny, and has also spent time in New Zealand working on a 900-dairy-cow unit.

Her new role will enable Catherine to combine her agricultural knowledge with the highly accurate Allflex system, supporting and advising farmers on how to get the best from the system and realise productivity, efficiency and health improvements on farm.

John Graham – Customer and Technical Support Manager (Northern Ireland)

From Seskinore in Co.Tyrone, John has solid experience in the field of agricultural technology and excellent customer service skills. Before joining Allflex, he held customer facing roles with National Milk Records, providing customer support and training on various technologies including heat detection monitoring systems. He also has experience of working for an animal feed company.

John holds a degree in Agricultural Technology from Queens University Belfast/Greenmount Agricultural College. His new role at MSD Animal Health Livestock Intelligence will see him advise and support customers on how to get the best from the Allflex system, using the data it provides to improve farm management decision making.

Shane Nolan – Customer and Technical Support Manager (Midlands)

From Co. Carlow, Shane has solid experience in the field of agricultural technology and excellent customer service skills. Before joining MSD Animal Health, he held a Technical & Operations Manager role for the UK & Ireland with LIC Automation for their Saber product range. This role provided customer support and training on various technologies including SCC & Milk sensors, ID systems, Drafter & Heat Detection systems. Shane holds a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Carlow Institute of Technology. His new role at MSD Animal Health Livestock Intelligence will see him advise and support customers on how to get the best from the Allflex & Saber systems, using the data they provide to improve farm management decision making.

Christy McGuirk - Sales Representative (North West and Midlands)

Christy has extensive experience and knowledge of livestock fertility and breeding, previously holding both technical and sales roles in Moocall Ltd and Reprodoc Ltd. He hails from Newbliss in Co. Monaghan.

Christy’s new role with Allflex will see him drive new business relationships and provide technical support to farmers to enable them to maximise the benefits of the system. He will be responsible for the North West and Midlands.

Niall Brennan – Sales Representative (South East)

Niall has seven years’ experience working in a biotechnology role at AllTech, progressing from a graduate role to project manager. He hails from a farming background in county Louth and holds a degree in agricultural science from University College Dublin.

With excellent business acumen, strong communication and organisational skills, Niall’s new role with MSD Animal Health Intelligence will see him explore new business opportunities with farmers in the South East and work closely with customers to ensure they maximise the benefits from the system.

Chris Keys – Sales Representative (Northern Ireland)

Chris has worked with Allflex Livestock Intelligence for the last four years, responsible for building a distribution and installation network, and providing customer support, and now joins the Livestock Intelligence team under MSD Animal Health as Sales Representative for Northern Ireland.

Prior to joining Allflex he worked for National Milk Records (NMR) for 14 years, managing the NI and Scottish business for the organisation. He holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Agriculture specialising in dairy production from Greenmount Agricultural College.

Chris is based outside Armagh where he runs a dairy farm in partnership with his father. He has excellent relationship building, technical and communication skills, as well as a solid understanding of livestock health and breeding. His new role will see him further expand awareness of Allflex and the productivity, health and efficiency benefits offered by the monitoring system.

Stephen Fagan - Product and Customer Services Manager, Ireland

Stephen has excellent agricultural, technical and customer support knowledge gleaned from previous roles, his university education and practical on-farm experience. He joins MSD Animal Health Intelligence from Moocall where he held the position of Head of Operations and Design, overseeing the customer services, sales, marketing, and R&D teams.

A part-time suckler-to-beef and sheep farmer from Co. Westmeath, Stephen holds a Bachelor of Science in Product Design, Marketing and Innovation from Maynooth University, where he picked up an entrepreneurial award for the development of wearable monitoring technology for sheep. Stephen’s new role at MSD Animal Health Intelligence will see him manage system integrations and adopt learnings from customer feedback to provide the best possible user experience.