Earlier this year I gave a presentation at Amelicor’s Herd and Feed Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, about how to level up a farm or ranch’s technology use. The Progressive Dairy Podcast adapted that presentation into a recent episode.
Listen to learn how to level up technology ownership on your operation, champion an employee who takes an interest in technology and ask technology providers tough questions.
Check out the podcast here.
Afimilk (Sponsor)
Cow Monitoring for Higher Conception, Better Health
Hear how one dairy leverages technology to maintain a high conception rate and limit the impact of disease.
DeLaval launches 2nd gen teat spray robot
Global milking equipment manufacturer DeLaval recently announced a new version of its teat spray robot (TSR). The new robot, named TSR2, is capable of up to 20 percent faster application than the first model. The new robot can now work in tandem with a second TSR2 to spray cows on a rotary at a rate of 3.6 seconds per cow or 1,000 cows per hour.
“With the TSR2, we’re providing dairy farmers with an automated robot to help them achieve efficiency, improve ROI and help ensure the wellbeing of their cows,” says Jeff Hahn, Solution Manager, Rotaries and Parlors at DeLaval.
Sub-4-second application time has always been the goalpost for teat spray robots to be practical for use on modern dairies with rotaries. The design approach for the new robot is new. The original TSR robotic arm was mounted to a stand base. The new TSR2 employs a gantry-mount design.
The new robot still includes intelligent application technology with six spray patterns and up to 99% teat spray accuracy. The company claims the new robot version can feasibly replace a human doing the same task at “a lower monthly investment than an employee.”
Learn more about the new teat spray robot here.
Dairy Tech Map 2.0 to be unveiled Jan. 17
I’ll be joining the IFCN team on Jan. 17 for a 2024 market outlook and the unveiling of the 2.0 version of the Dairy Tech Map. Get the first look at the new map during the event.
The live, online session will also include a panel of global, forward-thinking dairy producers talking about their use of technology. You won’t want to miss it!
The webinar is free, but registration is required. Sign up here to participate.
Supreme International (Sponsor)
Supreme International is the first company in North America to
manufacture the vertical feed processor and is recognized as the best
TMR processor in the world. Learn more here.
AI helps uncover new class of antibiotics for human medicine
One of my favorite AI news publications recently included the following update:
“A new scientific discovery could help save millions of lives around the world every year. Scientists at MIT and Harvard have discovered a new class of antibiotics with the help of AI, a breakthrough which could potentially lead to medicines that can overcome drug-resistant bacteria.
“The scientists used AI to screen millions of chemical compounds and discovered non-toxic compounds that are capable of killing two different types of drug-resistant bacteria. The scientists conducted further experiments in mice to demonstrate the effectiveness of these new compounds in practice.”
Why is this news significant? It’s the first time in over 60 years that scientists have discovered a new class of antibiotics. This time with help from AI. Animal agriculture should pay attention because it’s likely AI technology could be applied to discoveries of new drug classes for animals. Using AI for research on the human market is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s possible.
Read more about the scientists’ methods here.
Computer vision AI for cattle claims 140 installs
A recent feature story about how one cattle producer in Canada is using OneCupAI included an update that the company now has more than 140 installations.
Read more about what the company is doing here.
Dairy profit projections from ZISK
Projected profitability for the next 12 months for two dairy herd sizes
DECREASED
in recent 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 Dec. 28, 2023):
1,000-cow dairy = $270,600 (DOWN about $27,900 in the last two week)
2,500-cow dairy = $1.310 million (DOWN about $22,000 in the last two weeks)