The rapid growth in the adoption of smart cameras using artificial intelligence (AI) means that more than 1 million U.S. cows may soon be under 24-hour observation. While I’ve been a fan of smart cameras for a while, and digital technology in daily farms in general, I have been amazed by the speed of growth of artificial intelligence.
Cameras using machine vision are now in our barns, in our milking parlors, in the alley ways but in fact the use of smart cameras has been around for almost a decade. Advanced AI (large language models, ChatGPT), the speed of adoption, the advent of new offerings and being backed by bigger Agri players are transforming cow management, allowing dairy managers to realize the full economic value of these systems.
Smart Cameras: From Concept to Integral Component
The adoption of camera adoption has been slower than that of wearable (IoT) sensors, with cow collars, ear tags and other wearables in over 60% of the US herd. Today smart camera systems adoption represents only about 10% of cow wearables, but this number is expected to double again.
Cainthus were the first in cow camera systems and Ever.Ag have combined the technology and data flows into their Dairy.com and Mydairydashboard.com platforms. Recently Ever.Ag added to their Feed Bunk management monitoring camera systems, and re-launched it as Feed King, a feed management system. Ever.Ag also launched a new offering for the maternity ward, which alerts farmers when cows are ready to calve with real time alerts and time stamped video clips to their phone, smart device or laptop. The two Ever.ag systems are already being used on over a hundred thousand cows and show signs of going viral. Key partners in California and Minnesota were instrumental the development of the systems, ensuring that it was practical and of value to the farmer. Adding data origination to data aggregation shows the output and outcomes together to give farmers clear feedback and actions to take.
GEA from Germany purchased CattleEye last year, a UK startup with a product that allows farmers to identify lameness in the milking parlor. Their 2D cameras are located over the walkways as the cows go milking and by observing the cows gait it is possible to predict accurately cows at risk and separating them from the herd as they return to the barn. As the world’s first 2D Camera livestock monitoring solution their vision is to revolutionize how billions of farmed livestock are monitored globally through the application of machine vision powered by AI leading to farms being more profitable, better cow care and carbon footprint. Today CattleEye is present on farms milking over 100,000 cows and believe that in 20 years’ time it will be unthinkable not to use AI smart cameras as part of a transparent, trusted animal protein supply chain.
California based Cattle Care is the fastest growing system and uses camera images from the milking parlor to spot non-standard, deviations from protocols in milking, and send the farm alerts with video footage of the behaviors it has spotted. They claim adoption by over 500,000 milking cows. Cattle Care video analytics solutions measure employee performance, making them accountable, allowing shifts from hourly wages to performance-based salaries. Practical examples include the ability to detect when milkers fail to clean the teats or install the cups properly or even use of cellphones or smoking while doing their job. Video clips of non-standard practices allow managers to coach and police the farm, and result in improvements in work practices after installation.
Focusing on Welfare
ElectrofAI is a ‘digital shepherd’ system developed with investment from the founders of Fairlife as an autonomous system to ensure cow welfare practices are being followed on farms. Compared to other players ElectrofAI uses simpler camera systems but the purpose is to focus on cow welfare, and the interaction between the careers and the cows, creating transparency for auditors to demonstrate best practices are being followed and reduce any risks to the brand.
The use of cameras on dairy farms has been around for over 20 years but AI brings a new dimension. Since it is not possible for a human to sit in front of a bank of camera’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and to identify farm practices, animal welfare and sustainability practices, Artificial Intelligence camera solves this problem. 2025 promises a year with smart camera adoption, and nowhere for cows to hide.
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