Our Recap of the Global Dairy Tech Startup Spotlight
Bethany Deshpande, CEO of SomaDetect, presenting at the Global Dairy Tech Start-up Spotlight
This year has been an unprecedented and unpredictable year. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many dairy industry events, conferences, and trade shows have either been postponed or canceled. To make up for these unfortunate cancellations, the World Dairy Expo had decided to sponsor an online and free virtual event for all farmers, industry stakeholders, and supporters alike called the Global Dairy Tech Start-up Spotlight!
This event featured 10 of the leading innovative startups to pitch their ideas, insights, and updates on the latest technology they have to offer. As one of the ten, we had the opportunity to not only share our mission and vision but to also learn about the exciting ideas from other tech companies in the industry. Here are some of our top takeaways from the pitches:
Take Away #1: Dairy technology is vast, evolving, and affects many different areas within the industry.
Whether sensors, cameras, robots, or software, there are many solutions and opportunities to tackle the challenges that farmers face. From the Spotlight, these challenges included on-farm labor, herd health, milk quality, farm fiscal health, and reproductive success. From the variety of pitches, it became evident that there are many different avenues to pursue solving a farmer’s individual problem; it really depends on what the farmer is trying to improve on their farm.
For example, both Cainthus and EIO Diagnostics talked about how using camera technology can improve different areas on-farm. With Cainthus, they specifically focused on feed management, whereas for EIO Diagnostics they focused on mastitis and udder infection. Both companies use camera technology but apply that technology for different solutions.
Take Away #2: The importance of having an on-farm connection between technologies.
The Global Dairy Tech Start-up Spotlight made it evident that these technologies can deliver benefits to farmers by connecting with current on-farm technologies. Whether working with RFID identification, robotic systems, or connecting with data from other sources, these innovations can work together to improve operational success.
It becomes critical for these companies to be able to work together and collaborate through partnerships to ultimately provide the best solutions to farms. All the while, requiring on-farm connectivity, which can be a challenge for many rural areas (but that’s a discussion for another time).
Take Away #3: Data will play a critical role in the future of dairy.
It is no surprise, given the direction of digitization in other industries, that the future of dairy truly lies within the data. Many, if not most, of the companies that pitched in the Spotlight, offer a unique opportunity in utilizing both new and old data for improving farm productivity. For example, with Milc Group, it means collecting a variety of internal on-farm data for multiple areas of the farm (feed, labor, and equipment), whereas, with Zisk, they make external milk market data accessible to farmers.
And of course, with our technology, we’re creating new data from analyzing the milk. New data offers insights that farmers could not previously access, whether that new data comes from in-line sensors, in-barn cameras, or wearable technology on cows. The key is creating new data that works with the farmer and with “old data” or data that is already gathering on the farm.
Our Part
We are proud to be joined by these innovative companies in the pursuit of bringing technological advancements to the dairy farm. We listened to the pitches of these companies and, in a way, felt a connection to them all. For the most part, these startups all share the goal of improving dairy farmers’ lives, helping their herds, and overall creating a more profitable, sustainable, and successful operation. We are honored to be part of this event and to be able to share our insights with the industry.
In the end, technology can revolutionize dairy farming as long as it can be useful to the dairy farmer in their daily lives. By listening to farmers and providing them with solutions they can benefit from, we can create a better future for dairy.