The Kansas City-based dairy giant’s 2021 DFA CoLab Accelerator, which focuses on innovative dairy products and emerging agricultural technologies, kicks off this week.

This year’s 90-day programme will be attended by start-ups behind concepts including facial recognition software for cows, nanotechnologies to help treat mastitis and a single-serve, snack-sized cheese bar.

Saga Ventures is the name of the fledgling firm behind a cheese snacking bar that DFA said provides “healthy and satiable fuel” between meals. The bars, which have 17g of protein, contain milk, fruits, nuts and spices.

SimpliFed is a second member of the cohort. DFA says the business is developing a “better, personalised organic formula” and nutrition supplements to “bridge the gap between breast milk and infant formula”.

DFA has also selected The Modern Milkman, a start-up that has designed an online platform to offer local products delivered to consumers’ doorsteps on a subscription basis.

Doug Dresslaer, director of innovation at DFA, said: “It’s a very diverse group with some cutting-edge ag-technologies that can help solve problems and benefit our farm family-owners as well as product-focused start-ups that are exploring new possibilities for dairy foods.”