Digital cows: how AI is reshaping farms

Preventative health is also a trend that we're seeing with humans.

So it would make sense that you would also do it for your livestock.

All right, Alex.

So what is the AI actually looking for in this model? How does it pick these things and how can you be sure?

We've looked at the whole life cycle and production processes within a dairy and our approach has been where can we apply technology but also artificial intelligence to each of those processes.

So not only are we looking at the health of the animal but we are looking at procedures and we are looking at the feedstock and we're looking at reproduction.

So everything in the life cycle of that animal Can AI be applied to it, but applied in a way that delivers an understanding of what's going on? It's not like a large language model.

It's actually learning based on the patterns and the data is giving us the patterns.

So then we know what a healthy animal should be doing.

So we know how much a healthy animal should be producing.

And so then we're getting data that's starting to tell us if when an animal starts to deviate from that pattern, And if it starts to deviate from that pattern, we're then looking at all the other data elements to actually start to tell us something happened in its life or in the last few days that caused it to behave in a certain way and therefore production will drop or therefore it's starting to exhibit symptoms of mastitis or ketosis or some of these health events.

So that's where AI is being applied.

We're actually using machine learning.

And one of the key things also that we've done is there is a lot of literature out there that's been developed through our industry bodies like Dairy Australia, Agriculture Victoria, et cetera, and so on.

And it talks about what best practice looks like.

So we've connected a lot of that research, a lot of those best practices and connected that to the data that's coming from the farm to actually determine whether there's a differentiation there.

So we can actually say that this data is exhibiting this event.

And so therefore the reason for that is because you're not following this particular protocol.

So we're connecting AI in every aspect of the farm to make it as efficient as as possible.

And that ensures that the animals are getting healthier and healthier.

So we're looking after the animal welfare.

We're also looking after the farmer wellbeing because the farmer now doesn't have to look at 43 apps.

One of the great things about this is Peter's taken me on a number of farms and you've got the farmer sitting on the tractor with 43 apps and he's got mud all over his hands.

And how is he going to actually get access to that data? He's going to make in his head the connection between this app is telling me that the animal was moving a certain way.

This app is telling me that the milk production's down.