An Interview on Artificial Intelligence and Precision Dairy Technology
Last month, we interviewed Bryan Wattie, SomaDetect's Manager of Field Engineering and Strategic Partnerships, on the impact of artificial intelligence within the dairy industry.
Bryan shared how he got started in dairy technology, what he has learned through his role, and what he thinks the future of dairy will look like with precision dairy technology. Here are three takeaways from our conversation.
We can detect much more than what we originally thought.
“We found that we could determine fat and protein ratio [and] different levels of progesterone and we also found that we can determine if a cow is pregnant or not,” said Wattie.
Wattie is thrilled about exploring how we can utilize this information to help dairy farmers but it's also excited about the value that we are yet to discover.
“If there are any compounds in milk that we know about, or don’t know about, that could be used as a diagnosis tool: if they are monitored inline and in real-time, what would those compounds be?
The possibilities are endless!
We can change the life of farmers, for the better.
Bryan mentioned that SomaDetect is focused on building something that can ultimately help improve the lives of dairy farmers and their herds. For him, it all comes down to creating decision support tools that can improve data analysis and data interpretation.
“If we have SCC from every cow at every milking can we use that to predict when mastitis might occur?”
Thanks to artificial intelligence, our sensor technology enables us to achieve this.
“What will it mean [to detect] SCC at every cow at every milking? Once we know [it], we [can] use it in a decision making process to treat that cow. It will be very exciting on how that has an impact on performance patterns on mastitis management”
He explained that there are these little patterns that happen in the data before the cow gets sick that can enable us to develop new standards of care and mastitis practice. Maybe not using antibiotics at all.
“If we have SCC from every cow at every milking can we use that to predict when mastitis might occur?”
Technologies such as ours will ultimately improve the lives of cows and farmers by making diagnosis much faster, accessible, and cheaper.
We will unlock collaboration opportunities across the dairy industry.
“Can we bring data from different systems together to also make...determinations? Perhaps at an improved level of performance and even make these predictions with more and more accuracy.”
Bryan explained that our sensors can enable the dairy industry to bring together different systems and be able to gather information more effectively and at a larger scale across the dairy industry.
“If we had an AI-enabled in-line sensor on a lot of different farms, what could that mean for a processor and what could they learn about their supply chain in real-time?”
Ultimately, the more information we gather, the more value will be created for the industry including genetics, animal health, feed, and dairy processing companies.
This becomes more pressing now due to COVID-19. As we are forced to social distance from one another, how can veterinarians and other stakeholders get access to more data to maximize the value to their clients at a distance?
We can bridge these gaps.
To learn more about our technology, check out our page here. And to watch the rest of our interviews in our Artificial Intelligence and Precision Technology in Dairy Video Series, click the link here.