Cattle methane emissions recently measured from space
A Canadian-owned satellite company announced this week the results of a test from March that it says proves its satellites can successfully detect methane emissions coming form agricultural facilities. GHGSat, an environmental data company, measured the emissions coming from a feedlot 6 miles southeast of Bakersfield in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
The observations were made by high-resolution satellites the size of microwave ovens, orbiting at 300 miles above earth. The company has pioneered satellite methane monitoring, which can pinpoint the exact source of even small methane emissions. The company began publicizing its work in 2021.
The company claims this test, and others before it, show that its satellites can monitor thousands of sites, every day, at a low cost. It currently has three satellites in orbit, with three more scheduled to launch this month with SpaceX.
The company is also currently developing first-ever methodologies to measure emissions from offshore energy production facilities. It will also be expanding its investigation of agricultural methane sources to include sugar beet and sugar cane production, and dairy farming.
Learn more about the company here.
First robotic milking rotary on a grazing dairy to be installed in Australia
A 750-cow dairy in southeastern Australia will be the first grazing dairy in the world to be milked by GEA’s DairyProQ milking rotary. The rotary will be 50 stalls, but only have 40 robots installed at start up. The farm hopes to be milking with the new equipment by August.
Read more about the farm receiving the new installation here.
Canadian rancher co-creates new record-keeping technology
A rancher near Calgary, Alberta, is pioneering a new system aimed at helping small cattle producers in rural areas who don’t have good Internet connectivity keep accurate records. He’s developed a device to read Canada’s national identification ear tags, store data on an electronic tag reading device and later upload it to a spreadsheet when back near a computer. He aims to replace the traditional handwritten calving book for cow-calf producers. The company is called Flokk.
Read more about the company here.
DFA announces 2022 start up accelerator class
Five startup companies were recently selected to participate in DFA’s 2022 CoLAB Accelerator program. The program lasts 90 days and focuses on dairy product and processing innovations and new technologies for dairy farms. Start ups gain a thorough understanding of the dairy industry and have the opportunity to work with top executives from the largest U.S. dairy co-op.
Four of those companies named in the new accelerator class are milk production specific:
• Cattle Scan (Guelph, Canada) – This company provides real-time monitoring technology that measures the biometrics of individual cattle, starting with temperature. Data can be accessed on a cloud-based platform and allows farmers to improve the overall health of their herds
• The Hago Energetics Company (Camarillo, Calif.) – This company aims to helps farms, either cattle or dairy, convert waste, like manure, into fuel cell grade hydrogen using a patented carbon negative approach that does not involve hydrolysis. This hydrogen is expected to sell at a lower cost and have a lower carbon footprint than current methods
• Lemna (Gilbert, Ariz.) – This company provides a comprehensive nutrient management solution for agricultural wastewater through the use of duckweed (aquatic plants) in a controlled growth system. The duckweed also has the potential to provide farmers with a new revenue stream.
• ReproHealth Technologies (Indianapolis, Ind.) – This company make an innovative, patent-pending device that brings IVF technology to the farm. Founders believe the device could potentially double cattle embryo production and reduce reproduction costs
Learn more about the program and this year’s participants here.
New Zealand lameness detection start-up announces seed funding
A New Zealand start up working on automated lameness detection recently announced $1.6 million in seed funding to commercialize its new technology. The company, named OmniEye, has been trialing its video monitoring for cattle lameness detection on 20 farms in New Zealand since last fall.
The company joins Cattle Eye and DSP AgroSoft’s Cow Body Scan which are also working to automate lameness detection in the U.S. and Germany, respectively.
The Cow Tech Report is back
Sorry for being away for several months. I’ve personally had quite a few changes since the beginning of the year and took a break.
I’m now the VP of Publishing and Projects for Progressive Publishing. I supervise all of our content creators for all of our brands, including Progressive Dairy, Progressive Forage, Progressive Cattle and AgProud.com. As you may know, for the past 16 years, I have been the editor-in-chief of Progressive Dairy magazine. I’m excited to now continue to help our team reach even more producers in my new role. I also look forward to continuing coverage of technology for cows – a special passion of mine – and the startups that are working to help the producers who care for cows everyday.
Dairy profit projections from ZISK
Projected profitability for the next 12-month for two dairy herd sizes INCREASED
since the beginning of the year in profit projections from ZISK.
ZISK is a profit-projection smartphone app that tracks individual dairy farm profitability based on current CME board prices. Projections for a 1,000-cow dairy producing an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow and a 2,500-cow dairy producing an average of 85 pounds of milk per cow are provided.
12-month dairy farm profit projections (as of May 6, 2022):
1,000-cow dairy = $1.001 million (UP
about $441,000 since the first of the year)
2,500-cow dairy = $3.415 million (UP
about $452,000 since the first of the year)