Smart Farming - Dairy

How BoviSync and Integrated Tech are Creating a 'Digital Nervous System' for Modern Dairies

Thu, 14 May 2026 13:04:36 GMT

Across the American landscape, a silent revolution is rewiring the 250-year legacy of the dairy farm, transforming traditional barns and pastures into a high-precision digital nervous system. For operations like Abel Dairy in Wisconsin and Lincoln Dairy in New York, the manual grit of the past has met the cloud-based logic of the future, ensuring data flows as freely as milk and every decision is backed by real-time intelligence.

As the United States approaches its 250^th anniversary, the story of dairy is shifting from one of just getting by to one of mastering the margin. At the heart of this evolution is the death of the data silo and the birth of integrated, cloud-based management.

Steve, Allen and Nate Abel

(BoviSync)

The Wisconsin Blueprint: Wiring for Growth

For Steve Abel, a sixth-generation farmer at Abel Dairy, maintaining a legacy isn’t about looking backward — it’s about wiring the farm for a future his son Nate will one day lead. Three years ago, the Abels made a high-stakes move, expanding from a 2,000-cow operation to a 4,500-cow powerhouse. This wasn’t just about adding stalls or pouring concrete; it was a structural pivot toward precision.

At the center of the Abel expansion is an 80-cow GEA rotary parlor, but the true engine of the farm is BoviSync. By adopting this cloud-based central hub, the Abels eliminated the lag that has plagued dairy management for decades.

(BoviSync)

“We moved away from traditional data silos,” Abel explains. “For years, dairies struggled with double entry — the tedious process of recording data in one system only to manually type it into another. At Abel Dairy, that era is over.

“BoviSync networks with our sort gates, our feed software and even our hoof-trimming chute,” he says.

This connectivity transforms manual chores into automated workflows. The Abels no longer rely on traditional veterinarian pregnancy checks that require manual recording. Instead, they use blood samples and scanners. The results are uploaded to the cloud and downloaded directly into BoviSync. Because the software is linked to the farm’s sort gates, the cows are automatically identified and directed to the appropriate pens without a human ever having to check a clipboard.

Abel Dairy

(BoviSync)

The New York Perspective: Multi-Site Mastery

Thirteen hundred miles to the east, Bryant Stuttle, the herd manager for Lincoln Dairy in Auburn, N.Y., is navigating a similar digital frontier. Stuttle, a fourth-generation dairy professional, manages a complex multi-site operation for owners Dan and Nate Osborne. The system includes the home farm, Lincoln Dairy, and two satellite facilities, Ridgecrest and Gemini.

For Lincoln Dairy, the move to BoviSync two years ago was driven by a singular, ambitious goal: going 100% paperless.

“We operate as one herd across multiple farms,” Stuttle says. “The challenge with traditional software was how it handled multi-site data. We needed a system where events were tied to the facility, not just the cow. If a cow gets bred at one site and moved to another, we need to know exactly where that event happened to track technician performance and facility success. BoviSync made that seamless.”

Before the switch, the morning routine was often a source of frustration.

“I can’t tell you how many times we’d walk in on a busy herd-check day and the server hadn’t refreshed or a command line error meant the lists weren’t right,” Stuttle recalls. “You’d lose two hours of your day circling back to restart. Now, the guys grab their phones and go. There’s a level of confidence that the day is set up for success before we even start.”

The Human Element Removed from the Environment

(BoviSync)

The digital evolution isn’t limited to cow records; it has extended into the very air the animals breathe. In Wisconsin, the Abels installed the Agrimesh system to control ventilation and sprinklers in their tunnel-ventilated free stall barns.

“We wanted something that took the people out of the equation,” Abel says. “We don’t want an employee having to remember to open a curtain or speed up a fan because it warmed up at 10 a.m.”

The system calculates temperature, humidity and negative pressure in real time, adjusting tunnel fans and curtains automatically. It is a level of environmental consistency that ensures the cows remain cool in the summer and the barns don’t freeze in the winter, all without human intervention.

Similarly, at Lincoln Dairy, technology like SenseHub (formaly known as SCR collars) provides a constant heartbeat for the herd. These collars monitor rumination and activity across all three sites, feeding data back into the central hub. When combined with SenseHub sort gates, the system allows Stuttle’s team to identify and treat sick cows before they even show physical symptoms.

“Our reproduction is phenomenal — the highest it’s ever been,” Stuttle says. “Our cull and death rates are the lowest they’ve ever been. When you perform at that level, it all spells profit for the bottom line.”

The Power of Compliance and ROI

For both operations, the return on investment for these technologies isn’t just found in labor savings — it’s found in compliance.

“If you’re going to sell me a technology, it needs to make my employees more consistent,” Abel asserts. This focus on compliance ensures every vaccine is given correctly and every hoof is trimmed on schedule. At Abel Dairy, even the hoof-trimming chute is wired. A tablet mounted to the chute allows for instant data entry, eliminating the data lag of paper records.

At Lincoln Dairy, the technology allowed the farm to reposition two full-time labor units to other areas of the farm that needed more attention.

“It’s not just about doing the job with fewer people; it’s about doing the job better,” Stuttle explains. “The guys love it. I joke with them about going back to clipboards, and they just look at me and say, ‘Please, no.’”

The Heifer Pipeline

The digital nervous system also extends far beyond the home acres. Both Abel Dairy and Lincoln Dairy use Kansas Dairy Development (KDD) to raise their heifers. This creates a unique data challenge: How do you track an animal that is a thousand miles away?

“With KDD still being on DairyComp and us being on BoviSync, it was a challenge,” Stuttle admits. “But the BoviSync team figured out a way to translate that data daily. Now, I have my KDD file right in my system. It’s like they’re speaking two different languages, but the software acts as the translator. I have the same access to the data as the people on the ground in Kansas.”

This level of transparency allows both farms to right-size their herds. By using sexed semen, they can precisely determine how many replacements they need and breed the rest of the herd to beef. This beef-on-dairy pivot has become a vital revenue stream, providing a hedge against milk price volatility.

Advice for the Modern Producer: Avoid the Data Drown

With so much information available, the risk of data exhaustion is real. Stuttle’s advice to other producers is to focus on what actually moves the needle.

“Data management is the biggest opportunity in the industry right now,” he says. “But you can get drowned in it. Every salesperson will tell you their metric is the one that matters. You have to figure out what matters to you and look at it consistently, month in and month out.”

At Lincoln Dairy, that means focusing on hundredweight sold, transition cow success and pregnancy rates. By centralizing this data, the management team can stop worrying about whether the technology is working and start focusing on managing the people and the cows.

(BoviSync)

Legacy Powered by Data

As these two dairies demonstrate, the center of gravity for U.S. dairy is shifting. It is moving away from the localized, fragmented models of the past toward a high-precision, integrated future.

The 250^th anniversary of American agriculture is a celebration of resilience, but for the Abels and the Osbornes, it is also a launchpad. By integrating every gadget, sensor and software into a cohesive digital nervous system, they are ensuring their farm legacies will thrive for decades to come.

In Eden, Wis., and Auburn, N.Y., the lights in the barn are still on. But today, they are powered by data, driven by compliance and managed with a level of brilliance our ancestors could only have dreamed of. The U.S. dairy farmer has evolved from a milk man into a protein integrator, and the digital revolution is just getting started.

How a Downsized Dairy Turned to AI to Make the Numbers Work

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:31:16 GMT

On a 60-cow registered Holstein dairy outside Baldwin, Wis., artificial intelligence has become part of the management toolbox.

Mary Holle and her husband, Joe, milk in a refurbished 94-cow tie-stall barn at Holle-Oaks Dairy, a family operation that has seen major change in recent years. After taking over the farm from Joe’s parents in 2017, the Holles made a hard pivot in 2024, downsizing from 120 cows to 60.

With her father-in-law ready to step back from daily chores and labor costs continuing to climb, Holle could see the pressure building. The farm had reached a point where something had to change to keep things sustainable for everyone involved. Thus, downsizing the herd became the path forward.

Part of that downsizing process involved bringing in a tool still new to many dairy farmers — artificial intelligence, or AI. It wasn’t an obvious fit, but Holle saw it as a way to work through her farm’s numbers and run different scenarios without adding more layers to an already full system.

A Numbers Mindset Meets a New Tool

Holle, who also serves as the program manager for the Farm and Industry Short Course at UW-River Falls, didn’t come to AI without experience. She’s long leaned into data, building her own systems to track and understand how her farm is performing.

“I’ve been using Excel since I was, like, 10 years old,” Holle says. “I started doing my dad’s dairy herd records, because we didn’t milk test.”

That early passion for data turned into formal training in dairy science and ag business, along with several years of building detailed spreadsheets for her own operation. Today, those workbooks track just about everything on the farm, from feed costs and veterinary expenses to crop yields, soil tests and labor.

“I’ve been building complex equations within Excel for like a decade,” Holle says. “My biggest workbook is 17 pages long.”

Even with all of that in place, she eventually hit a point where spreadsheets alone weren’t enough to work through the number of what-if scenarios she was running. She wasn’t trying to replace the system she already had, but she needed a faster way to test ideas and see how different decisions might actually play out.

That’s when Holle began to use AI. She started experimenting with it by feeding in her own farm numbers, then asking it to run different scenarios and compare outcomes she would normally have to build out by hand. Over time, she used it to work through decisions faster and feel more confident in what the numbers were pointing to.

Running the Numbers

The 2024 transition pushed Holle to take a closer look at her cost structure. With fewer cows, fewer employees and new financial obligations, she needed to figure out what her cost per cow and break-even milk price needed to be for the smaller herd to stay profitable.

“I needed to run a series of scenarios to find the linchpins in the business,” Holle says. “We had to drop our cost per cow and get our break-even down to around $17.80 per cwt. for the smaller herd to work.”

She pulled data from her workbooks, including fixed costs, five-year averages for feed and vet expenses, labor hours, wages and loan balances with payment schedules. From there, she used AI to organize the information and get a better read on what was driving cost per cow.

“I asked ChatGPT, ‘What are the trends, what’s going on, can you put this into context?’” she says.

Working in short windows between chores, Holle ran different scenarios around debt, labor and herd costs to see which changes would have the biggest impact. It didn’t hand her one answer, but it helped narrow the decisions down.

“It told me what needed paid off first and where I’d see the most return,” she says. “I took the results to our banker and he said, ‘That’s ingenious.’”

In the end, the Holles were still the ones giving the final say, but AI helped them sort through information quicker and feel better about the direction they were headed.

Taking AI to the Field

After using AI to work through the financial side of the operation and guide the downsizing decision, Holle started looking at where else it could fit. Crop management was the next place she turned, and it’s something she’s still working through this year.

The farm currently includes about 500 acres in rotation with corn, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat. Similar to her herd management Excel work, Holle had built up soil tests, yield maps and field histories over time, but the information wasn’t connected in a way that made it easy to use. This year, she started using AI to organize it by field and year, then layer in crop history and yield data so it could be compared more directly.

“I didn’t have everything tied together in one place,” she says. “I had the information, it just wasn’t organized in a way I could actually use.”

With a new structure in place, Holle began asking AI more targeted questions around nutrient management and input efficiency. One focus centered around nitrogen — how much was already available in the field and where she might be able to cut back on applications without hurting yield.

“I wanted to know what was already out there before just putting more on,” she says. “If there was a place to save a little money without giving up yield, I wanted to find it.”

She’s also started looking at whether past decisions, like planting BMR corn, may have longer-term effects on nutrient availability. Using AI helped Holle spot patterns and show up to conversations with her agronomists better prepared.

This spring, she and her agronomists used that analysis as a starting point to fine-tune fertilizer and spray programs by field, paying closer attention to residual nutrients and timing. The new plan cut back on total fertilizer and chemical use compared to the previous year. By her estimate, this adjustment will trim roughly $40,000 from her fertilizer and spray bill in 2026.

Keeping Perspective in Place

While Holle sees value in AI, she’s careful about how she uses it. Sensitive information stays out, including personal identifiers, financial accounts and tax data.

“There’s always a step between sensitive information and it,” she says. “Anything personal or financial doesn’t go straight in. It always gets filtered or kept separate first.”

That caution carries into how she uses the tool in day-to-day decisions. Even when AI is helping her work through parts of the farm’s data, it hasn’t taken over decision-making. Holle still relies on her own judgment when something doesn’t line up with what she’s seeing on the farm, especially when context doesn’t show up in the numbers.

“Yes, I think it’s made me a better farmer,” she says. “But it’s a tool for the areas where I don’t know enough. There’s always context it’s going to miss. You can read a person or a situation in ways it can’t.”

For other producers thinking about trying AI, Holle recommends starting small and treating it like any other tool on the farm. Don’t start with big decisions or sensitive financial work. Start with something simple, learn how it responds and build from there.

“Start with emails or documents,” she says. “Something low risk where you can see how it responds and get comfortable with how it handles your information before moving into anything bigger or more complex.”

From her experience, it has less to do with the technology itself and more to do with how organized the farm’s information is going in. If the inputs are messy or incomplete, the results will be, too.

“Garbage information in leads to garbage answers out,” Holle says. “If you don’t know what you’re asking for, you won’t get what you need.”

That also means knowing where the farm stands before expecting any tool to improve it. Clear records, numbers and a good handle on what’s working and what isn’t all matter just as much as the software being used.

“You need to understand your strengths and weaknesses first,” she says. “Know what you’re comfortable handling on your own and where you could use a little more support, so you’re not leaning on the tool for things you already do well or expecting it to fix gaps you haven’t identified yet.”

Faster Decisions, Tighter Management

On her 60-cow dairy, AI hasn’t replaced hands-on management or day-to-day decision-making. Instead, it’s helped her sort through financial choices, tighten input decisions and show up to conversations with advisers with more clarity around the numbers.

For Holle, it’s become a fast, free tool she can pull up anytime to work through questions and run scenarios. And it’s helped her move through decisions faster and keep the operation running a little tighter, without adding more layers to the process.

Separating Signal From Noise in a Data-Heavy Dairy

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:22:54 GMT

The beauty and curse of farming in the technological age comes in the form of 0’s and 1’s. There never seems to be an end to the measurables we collect and breakdown on a farm.

As our capabilities grow in terms of systems and software, this mound of data continues to grow.

But how do we know what is important?

Many seasoned herdsmen that I work with often bemoan just how hard it is to train the next generation of farm workers. “They just don’t have cow sense.” “They’re too deep in the numbers, and not the cows.” “Why can’t they just see it?”

What they are describing is a little-known skill they already possess known as Signal to Noise Positivity (SNP). Our seasoned herdsmen have developed an unconscious skill that allows them to differentiate between meaningful information (signal) and irrelevant information (noise). However, they had a significant advantage of developing this skillset during a time when the “noise” or extra irrelevant data was much less overwhelming.

Our farms are full of positive noise and signals that can be valuable in animal management. Feed intakes, milk production, lbs. of solids, rumination, SCC, milk deviation, etc. etc. all represent measures that indicate if things are headed in the right or wrong direction.

However, each of these factors is not important in each situation. Irrelevant noise from time to time causes new decision makers to make incorrect decisions based upon that noise rather than the more meaningful signals.

Taken together Signal and Noise Ratio (SNR) indicates whether positive noise is more or less likely to stick out. A higher SNR, or more meaningful noise vs irrelevant noise, means the decision maker is more likely to ID the important data whereas a low SNR means more confusion in the data.

But on today’s operations it is extremely difficult to learn how to increase a SNR and use it as our data pool, and subsequent noise grows.

For example, your herdsmen today may work a fresh pen and ID a sick cow with the following information; 7 DIM, rapid breathing, temp is 103 on the parlor meter, milk production is down 30 lbs., her ears are droopy, her rumination is down 40%, her eating time is 2%, and her activity is 50% what it was yesterday. These symptoms when taken together could be indicative of 5+ infectious diseases in a fresh cow and can rapidly confuse new workers.

However, an experienced herdsmen knows the most important part of all this noise is the 7 DIM signal which limits the likely diagnosis to only 2 or 3 possibilities. Their unique SNP ability filters the signal from the noise so no matter how much data we pile on top of the signal they can ignore the unimportant noise.

So how can we improve the SNP for new workers?

First, we need to eliminate multitasking. This only adds noise to the scenario and scatters attention. When working sick cows or doing other health tasks, new employees need to focus upon that singular task until deemed to have developed a sufficient SNP.

Second, we need to encourage monitoring of longer-term trends and react less to the hour to hour or day to day fluctuations. Certainly, there are cases that will change hour to hour but when training we need to help employees understand common cases and that cows generally will trend toward “healthy” or “sick” no matter how complex or simple our data collection system is.

Third, we need to expose these individuals to training from others who have advanced SNP skills. Many times, this involves an outside consultant such as your herd veterinarian who can use hands on training and also create SOP programs to help the individual navigate the noise.

Signals of disease are not always strong. However, by reducing noise for new team members we can increase the correct disease diagnosis while still implementing the latest in smart technology.

Engineering the Future: How One California Dairyman Uses Worms to Innovate

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:10:37 GMT

In the heart of California’s Central Valley, where the heat of Stanislaus County shimmers over vast stretches of almond hulls and corn silage, the rhythm of Alberto Dairy has remained constant for more than four decades. It is a rhythm of early mornings and the steady hum of a milking parlor. But beneath the surface of this traditional landscape, a quiet revolution is taking place — one powered by millions of earthworms and a third-generation farmer’s commitment to a legacy built on sacrifice.

Anthony Agueda, the grandson of Portuguese immigrants Antonio and Maria Alberto, doesn’t see sustainability as a corporate buzzword or a modern trend. To him, it is the natural evolution of the heavy lift his grandparents began in 1981. Today, as he stands at the helm of a modern dairy operation, Agueda is proving the path to the future isn’t always paved with complex machinery. Sometimes, it’s found in the simple, elegant systems of nature.

(Photos provided by Alberto Dairy)

A Foundation of Sacrifice

To understand where Alberto Dairy is going, one must understand where it started. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, the Alberto family wasn’t just building a business; they were chasing the American Dream with a level of intensity hard for the modern world to comprehend.

“My grandpa told me that when he came to the United States, he was working three jobs and went seven years without a single day off,” Agueda reflects. “In our workflow today, if we go seven days without a day off, it’s tough on us. But for them, it was about survival and building something for the generations they hadn’t even met yet.”

That old school value of sacrifice remains the North Star for the dairy. Antonio and Maria, now in their late 70s, still participate in the daily life of the farm. They didn’t just pass down land and cattle; they passed down the understanding that the cows always come first.

“You don’t just clock in and out,” Agueda says. “You go home when the work is done. My grandpa and my dad taught me that from the time I was a young kid feeding calves.”

The Third-Generation Pivot

Every generation of this California dairy family has faced a different challenge. For Antonio, it was the physical labor of the wheelbarrow and the struggle to establish a foothold. For Agueda’s father and uncle, it was the introduction of genetics, breeding and the early days of digital record-keeping. For Agueda, the challenge is navigating a landscape defined by environmental regulation and the urgent need for resource efficiency.

“Sustainability has always been there,” he explains. “A farmer has always left the land better than when they inherited it. It’s just that each generation adapts differently. Mine is focused on environmental sustainability — removing nitrogen and carbon and protecting our water.”

While many California dairies are looking toward methane digesters to meet state mandates, Agueda’s family found themselves drawn to something different. They wanted a system that mimicked God’s creation — something simple, effective and low maintenance.

(Photo provided by Alberto Dairy )

The Power of the BioFiltro

The solution came through a partnership with Nestlé: the BioFiltro system. It is a vermifiltration (worm-based) system that manages gallons of water every single day.

The concept is deceptively simple. Manure from the flush lanes is separated into solids and liquids. The liquids are then sprinkled over massive “worm beds” covering nearly 8 acres. As the water percolates through the beds, millions of worms and specialized microbes go to work, consuming the carbon and nitrogen. In about four hours, the water emerges on the other side, stripped of its contaminants and ready to be recycled.

Agueda recalls the light bulb moment when he visited a similar system in Washington State.

“The owner had a bucket of manure water from before the system and a bucket from after. He held the ‘after’ bucket up, and you couldn’t smell a thing,” he says. “It looked like clean water. If it were slightly clearer, you’d think you could drink it.”

For Alberto Dairy, the BioFiltro wasn’t just an environmental win; it was an operational one. Mechanical systems are expensive and prone to breaking down. The worm beds, however, are gravity-fed and require minimal energy.

“We liked the simplicity,” Agueda says. “In 25 years, who knows what digester technology will look like. But this? This is just natural filtration.”

(Photo provided by Alberto Dairy)

Better for the Land, Better for the Cow

The benefits of the system have rippled through every aspect of the farm. The treated water, now low in the sludge that used to clog irrigation valves, is used to fertilize crops more efficiently. But a surprising benefit was found in the barns.

“Our mastitis cases have gone down significantly,” Agueda notes. “Because the water we use to flush the lanes is so much cleaner and has less bacteria, the cows are healthier. That’s an economic benefit because medicine is expensive, but more importantly, it’s about animal comfort. A cow that isn’t sick is a cow that’s out in the stalls enjoying herself.”

This focus on cow comfort is a hallmark of the modern Alberto Dairy. From mattresses and fans to a specialized nutritionists and regular hoof trimming, the technology on the farm serves one purpose: making sure the animals are thriving.

(Photo provided by Alberto Dairy )

Future-Proofing the Central Valley

The regulatory environment in California is notoriously difficult. Between the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and strict methane reduction mandates, many farmers are choosing to leave the state.

By implementing the BioFiltro system, Agueda is proactively addressing the concerns of regulators and consumers alike. The system provides precise data on water usage and carbon reduction, which is used for carbon credit verification.

“It shows the public that dairies are the solution, not the problem,” Agueda asserts. “We aren’t just farming for regulators; we’re farming for the future.”

Alberto and Agueda Family: (Back row left to right) Aidan Alberto, Khloe Alberto, Kristen Alberto, Brian Alberto, Diane Agueda, Tony Agueda, Anthony Agueda, Megan Agueda, Lillian Agueda (Front row left to right) Maria Alberto, Antonio Alberto, Nathan Agueda

(Photo provided by Alberto Dairy )

The American Dream, Realized

As Agueda prepares for his upcoming marriage and looks toward raising a fourth generation on the farm, the weight of the legacy feels less like a burden and more like a gift. He uses his agricultural business degree from Fresno State to handle the bookkeeping that once burdened his grandmother, while still spending his days in the sun, vaccinating calves and helping to manage the herd.

If you asked his grandfather 40 years ago if he would one day be farming millions of worms to protect the atmosphere, he would have laughed. But today, as Antonio looks out over the fields he built from nothing, he sees a grandson who hasn’t forgotten the value of a day’s work.

“They truly achieved the American Dream,” Agueda says of his grandparents. “They started from the bottom, built a business and now they get to see it evolve. They’re proud because they know the land will be here for their great-grandchildren.”

In the end, the story of Anthony Agueda and Alberto Dairy is a reminder that the most profound innovations aren’t always found in a computer chip. Sometimes, they are found in the soil, in the tireless work of a million worms and in the enduring strength of a family that refuses to let their dream die.

Farmers Don’t Use AI for Answers — They Use It to Think Better

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:10:24 GMT

What you should know:

To use artificial intelligence in your business for a competitive advantage — not just a gimmick:

Ask better questions than most people
Combine AI with real-world experience
Execute on the answers

For Rachael Sharp, dry weather hasn’t made planting go any easier in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. And when a planter went down, the first thing she did was pull up Chat GPT.

“I pulled up the part number, and I saw that I’d actually entered in there last year. So it told me the date I changed it, and that was helpful, because I was trying to figure out why is this wearing out so quickly?” she says. “We’re in desperate need of rain, and we’re pulling in some pretty hard non-irrigated land right now. I logged that we changed the bearing again, and so next time, knock on wood, it hopefully doesn’t go out again, but if it does I can look and see I changed it twice in the last year.”

That’s just one of many examples of how Sharp is using ChatGPT to manage equipment, her time, and the farm business. She and her father, Don, are featured in an OpenAI commercial, which premiered during the Super Bowl.

And she’s in good company with other farmers in how to use the artificial intelligence platforms.

Marc Arnusch, the 2025 Top Producer of the Year, says ChatGPT is the most used app on his phone.

Jeremy Jack, leader of Silent Shade Planting Company the 2023 Top Producer of the Year, uses AI as his daily management teammate from agronomy and business decisions.

Here are the four ways these farmers use AI every day on the farm.

(Photo: Yvonne Min)

1. Make better decisions faster

Colorado farmer Arnusch uses ChatGPT and Grok to narrow down his consideration set when making decisions.

“It helps on the strategic side of things, and when making a decision, I’ll let it give the top four or five things to choose from, which helps when there’s a million choices,” he says. “It really is like my funnel. I’ll set up my phone on my dashboard and just dictate to it. Then when I’m back at the farm office, my wife Jill is relieved because I’ve already processed out loud with the AI tool.”

While most farms collect data, Jack uses AI to make decisions, particularly agronomic.

“I uploaded multiple years of soil data across our farms,” he says. “And we’ve found ways to manage fertilizer better, for example with sulfur.”

The data interpretation has shifted his thinking by connecting the yield zones with as-applied fertility and return on investment.

Jack is also using the technology to double check every spray application — from rates, to tank mix, to nozzle selection, to pressure optimization.

Sharp has also found AI helpful in managing chemical applications. She can remember chemical boxes marked up with her father’s calculations by hand.

“I tell the prompt what I’m spraying, where I’m spraying, how many acres, tank size, and then I let it tell me what to order,” she says. “Over time, it’s learned which products are liquid and which are dry flowables. And it’s helped me keep track of the inventory we have so we don’t end up with pallets of odds and ends.”

(Photo: OpenAI)

2. Be more efficient

When it comes to where to start with AI, Sharp has one piece of advice.

“Think of the task that you don’t like to do at the end of the day. For me, I didn’t want to do paperwork at the end of the day,” she says. “So I threw it over to ChatGPT, and I said, hey, this is what I planted today, this is the date, and I left it at that. I started really, really simple.”

Now, she’ll record things directly in the field or in the truck. She says it has helped with FSA 578 forms. And in day-to-day operations, she’s found benefits for time management and accuracy in all record keeping.

“We have seed samples that require a handwritten seed form that I turn in along with the sample, but I spoke into my phone and said, hey, Chat GPT, I need you to log that I sent this variety, this lot number, on this date, to the lab. And so, that’s probably one of 15 entries that I’ve made over the course of a month. And at the end when we finally turn in our last sample to the lab, I’ll ask it for a spreadsheet with all that listed,” she says.

(Photo: Sarah Green Photography)

3. Think more clearly about complex problems

Jeremy Jack often asks ChatGPT “What does this mean for my farm?” with current events.

“With the war in Iran, global fertilizer supply chain concerns, and even things like USDA reports, it’s given helpful perspective in how to think about what’s happening off the farm but impacts the farm.”

And he’s found success in using the platform to specifically think about the business strategy for his farm with vendors, including lenders, landowners and more.

4. Manage more professionally

Jack has been active with an advisory board for their farm, but AI has become like a boardroom in his pocket.

“I bounce ideas—pressure test if you will—before it costs me real money,” he says. “This includes input purchases, land agreements, and equipment purchases.”

He’s also come to use it in his external communications about the farm including his regular social media posts on LinkedIn.

When it comes to team management, Arnusch has input culture index results for vendors and employees, then the AI compares their individual characteristics with the job they are being asked to do.

“This has been a breakthrough,” he says. “It’s shown me that at no fault of their own, why some people fail at what they are being asked to do. It wasn’t because they weren’t working hard or doing the job. It was stretching them beyond what they can do.”

He gives the example of a farm foreman position on the farm, and how he used this process to match the candidate with the role.

(Sarah Green Photography)

Inside The Tax Return of Your Farm's Future

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:31:55 GMT

The traditional process of preparing agricultural tax returns has long been defined by manual data entry and the complex reconciliation of income. However, the integration of artificial intelligence into financial systems is ushering in a more sophisticated era of tax management. For the modern farm, the future of filing lies in a seamless pipeline where software handles the heavy lifting of data organization, leaving the high-level strategy to human experts.

Comprehensive Data Integration

The foundation of a modern tax return is the accounting system. Platforms like QuickBooks, Xero or specialized farm management software are becoming increasingly autonomous. In the near future, these AI agents will do more than simply record expenses; they will analyze them in real-time.

With direct links to bank feeds and digital invoices, AI can categorize expenditures with precision. It can distinguish between capital investments, such as machinery or land improvements, and standard operating costs like seed and fuel. This continuous synchronization means by the end of the fiscal year, the financial records are already in a format that mirrors the requirements of a tax return.

Automated Document Reconciliation

A significant portion of tax preparation involves matching — ensuring the farm’s internal records align with the documents issued by third parties. A preparer of a farm tax return may spend more time making sure all of the income is in the right box then planning to optimize the income tax level.

AI is uniquely suited to handle this high-volume verification. The system can automatically ingest Form 1099-PATR (cooperative distributions), 1099-G (government subsidies) and other Form 1099s and W-2s and verify them against recorded deposits.

If a document is missing or a figure does not match the ledger, AI identifies the specific discrepancy immediately, allowing for a targeted correction rather than a manual search through months of records.

The Role of Human Oversight

While AI provides the technical framework for the return, the final stage remains firmly in human hands. Once the software has mapped the data to the appropriate tax schedules, it produces a comprehensive draft for professional review.

This allows the farmer or a tax consultant to transition from a data entry role to a strategic advisory role. Instead of spending hours verifying line items, the human reviewer can focus on critical tax planning decisions including accelerated depreciation choices or income averaging that require professional judgment and an understanding of the farm’s long-term goals.

The result is a more accurate, defensible and efficient tax filing process. By automating the clerical aspects of the return, AI allows agricultural producers to maintain focus on their operations while ensuring full compliance with the evolving tax laws.

How One Mississippi Farmer Turned Data Into $330K in Fertilizer Savings

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:40:20 GMT

As the planter rolls across a Mississippi Delta field, row by row, it’s making split-second decisions on how much fertilizer to apply, where to apply it and where to apply nothing at all — a task that’s doesn’t require any second-guessing.

The decisions aren’t happening by instinct nor by habit. The planting and fertilizer decisions on this farm are all driven by data.

For Adron Belk, who farms in the Delta’s rich soils of Sunflower County, that shift — from gut feel to data-driven execution — isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about survival in a tight-margin environment, and ultimately, about profitability.

“This whole field, see how it’s calling for 8 gallons right there? It tells it the target. We’re looking for 8 gallons of fertilizer, and it’s putting out real close to 8 gallons,” Belk says as he’s making a planting pass through the field. “There’s areas in the field where it calls for none. So where it calls for none, it actually cuts it off on its own.”

On this farm, data doesn’t sit in a spreadsheet. It moves. It acts. It makes decisions in real time as equipment moves across the field.
That level of precision means decisions aren’t just guided by data, but automated with every pass.

“Where our phosphorus and zinc levels are low, the starter system turns on and it applies it. And where the phosphorus and zinc levels are adequate, it cuts it all and don’t put anything,” he says.

A Farm That Functions Like a Test Plot

Every acre Belk farms doubles as a testing ground. Every pass is an experiment. Every season is another opportunity to learn something new.

That mindset even extends to what he plants.

“I have never planted cotton on my own. My dad was a cotton farmer until 2007, when he quit growing cotton. We’re going to plant just a little bit this year though, about 130 acres. We’re going to get it custom picked. We’re just really planting the cotton to get a little bit of experience with it on a very, very small amount of acres. I believe it’s the tool I need to have in my toolbox for the future. And right now, I don’t have that tool,” he says.

At a time when many farmers are moving away from cotton, Belk is moving toward it.

“Some would say I’m just a glutton for punishment, I guess,” Belk says as he laughs.

A First Generation Farmer

Belk’s approach to farming didn’t come from following a playbook. In fact, it started with the opposite.

“I’m a first generation/second generation farmer,” he says. “My dad does farm, but we do not farm together.”

That decision for Belk to farm on his own was intentional from the start.

“My dad came through the 1980s. He just had a passion for it — worked really hard, started off with with almost nothing,” Belk explains. “And he did really well, and he knew all the lessons that he had to learn from being on his own, and mainly from messing stuff up on his own and learning. He knew how valuable that was. And he just really wanted us to always enjoy each other’s company and never have work come in between us or our family.”

So when Belk wanted to farm, his father gave him guidance — but not a safety net.

“He said, ‘I’ll give you all the advice you want,’ but he said it’s going to be beneficial if you do it on your own,” Belk remembers.

Belk took that to heart, starting his own farming operation by renting a few hundred acres while still in college. And like many young farmers, he learned by trial and error.

“I have made a lot of mistakes, and if I would have been farming with my dad, I probably wouldn’t have learned from those mistakes. I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make them to learn on my own,” Belk says. “The mistakes I’ve made have taught me more than the things that I’ve done right, for sure.”

No Silver Bullet — Just Small Gains

While Belk admits he’s learned the hard way and made plenty of mistakes, in an industry often searching for big breakthroughs, Belk focuses on incremental wins.

“I think in farming, we’re all looking for that silver bullet that is going to get you 15, 20 bushels more per acre. But most of those big yield gains like that have already been discovered or have already been done, and so it’s very hard to find those silver bullets,” Belk says. “So, we are really tailoring our farm to finding the 2-, the 3-, the 5-bushel [per acre] differences,” he says.

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That mindset is what led him deeper into data.

“We started really trying to look at data. And when we first started, I thought we were doing it right. I thought were interpreting things the right way. And then realized that we really needed to be going a little deeper,” he says.

Data Into Decisions

That realization led Belk to work with Chad Swindoll, founder of J19 Agriculture, to bring a more advanced level of analysis to the farm.

“He is very honed in on how to analyze data. And working with him has really brought a whole new perspective to ‘Not only now that we have this data, how do we analyze it? And then once we analyze, what do we do with it?’” he says.

For Swindoll, that last question — What do you do with it? — is where many farms fall short.

“There’s lack of implementation on the farm,” Swindoll explains. “There’s a lot of technology that’s available. I mean, we’re with the United States. We’re a very sophisticated production agriculture, but the execution and implementation piece on taking the information that the technology will provide — and then using it to really make a decision beyond just something that looks cool or sounds cool — but really driving change on the farm, that’s very lacking,” he says.

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When Swindoll started working with Belk, he quickly realized Belk is different in not only the way he farms, but how he thinks about farming. What sets Belk apart, Swindoll says, is his willingness to act.

“He does a very good job of collecting the things that we need to make those decisions, and then if if the information is telling us we need this or that, he does,” Swindoll says.

Swindoll says Belk is a good executive, and that ability to not only know what needs to be done, but then implement it, is something that’s fueling Belk’s success.

“That’s something that I try to emphasize and talk about a lot in our industry and with my customers and non-customers. The farmer is the CEO, and an executive’s job is to make decisions,” Swindoll says. “And so we can get hung on a fence and make no progress. At some point, you have to move. And to be a good executive, it goes back to having the right pieces of information and the willingness to act.”

Swindoll says it also takes courage to do something different than what everybody else is doing.

“It’s not easy, because some of the things that we’ve found over the years are contrary to what we have been taught or told,” he says.

A $330,000 Turning Point

That willingness to trust the data — and act on it — led to one of the biggest financial shifts on the farm.

“About three or four years ago, we started really letting the data, we started analyzing the data and looking at it. And what we started seeing is, we were spending a lot of this money on fertilizer, and we didn’t really know if we’re getting a return out of it,” Belk says.

The result was a major change in how fertilizer was applied and how much was used.

“Three years ago, we cut about $330,000 out of our fertilizer budget that I would not have done without good sound data that we trusted,” Belk says. “Now, it took me a little while to get to that, to understand it. Then having J19 really run statistical data and showing us what was real and what was not. When you realize you cut $330,000 out of a fertilizer budget, and you still made the equivalent yields, that’s pretty eye-opening,” he says.

Finding Yield in the Details

While something like fertilizer savings have added major cost-savings to their farm, sometimes, the biggest gains come from the smallest adjustments. That includes what the data told them about tire pressure.

“Because we grow everything in the Delta on a raised bed, in between the tires it really pinches that row. We started noticing where we would run 20 lb. of air where the tire would kind of squat, it was pinching the row more, and we were getting more compaction under the tractor,” Belk says. “In some cases, it was costing anywhere from 10 to 17 bushels of yield on the rows just up under the tractor,” he says.

That prompted Belk to boost tire pressure to 30 lb. or air.

Rethinking the Playbook

On Belk’s farm, the field itself has become the ultimate teacher.

“That field is our textbook,” Swindoll says. “That’s kind of how we do this. If you read something in a book and it doesn’t line up, I think it was William Albrecht who said, ‘If you observe nature, and the textbook doesn’t agree, then you throw the textbook away.’ And we’ve had to do that in some cases.”

That philosophy carries through every decision Belk makes.

“Actually, my dad always told me, ‘Never tell somebody who asks you why you’re doing something, to tell them because your daddy did it.’ You know times change. I mean, we’re in a whole different world right now than we were even 5 years ago, especially 10 years ago. And so I feel like agriculture is changing very fast. I feel like we’ve got to learn to adapt and adopt really fast. Doing all this stuff has allowed us to stay kind of current with the changes in agriculture. It’s allowed us stay current with new products, with new things,” he says.

The New Equation for Farming

Farming has always involved risk. Whether it’s weather, markets or input costs, none of it is guaranteed.

But on this Mississippi Delta farm, the approach to risk is changing. It’s no longer just about taking chances. It’s about measuring them. Testing them. Understanding them. And ultimately, deciding which ones are worth it.

Because in today’s agriculture, that difference between guessing and knowing, may be what separates farmers who keep up from those who get ahead.

The Eye in the Sky: Why Computer Vision is the Next Great Leap for Dairy Management

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:02:15 GMT

For decades, the gold standard of dairy management was the keen eye of a seasoned herdsman. It was the ability to walk a pen and instinctively know which cow was beginning to favor a foot or which one had dropped a few pounds of body condition. But as herds have grown considerably over the last decade, that human eye has been stretched to its limit.

Enter the era of computer vision (CV).

As Jeffrey Bewley, executive director of genetic programs and innovation at Holstein USA, recently shared at the High Plains Dairy Conference in Amarillo, Texas, the dairy industry is on the cusp of a visual revolution. It is a shift from reactive management to a world where the eye in the sky never sleeps, never tires and — thanks to a decade of breakthroughs in artificial intelligence — is becoming more accurate than the humans it assists.

The ChatGPT of the Barn

To understand why camera technology is exploding now, we have to look outside the barn. Most of us have experimented with ChatGPT, the AI that can write a poem or summarize a legal brief in seconds. As Bewley points out, the engine powering ChatGPT is the same engine now powering the best computer vision systems on dairies.

“Every dollar invested in ChatGPT-style AI lifts all AI — including farm vision,” Bewley says.

The massive global investment in AI (projected at $200 billion in 2025) has created a tidal wave effect. It has made high-powered hardware cheaper, algorithms smarter and a talent pipeline of researchers available to solve agricultural problems.

In 2012, a breakthrough called AlexNet proved deep neural networks could “see” with human-level accuracy. By 2015, a system called YOLO (You Only Look Once) allowed cameras to detect and classify multiple objects in real-time, even in the chaotic, low-light conditions of a dairy barn. Today, that technology isn’t just a university prototype; it’s a commercial reality.

From Geometry to Gold: Body Condition Scoring

One of the most immediate wins for computer vision is body condition scoring (BCS). Traditionally, BCS is subjective and infrequent. One person’s 3.0 is another person’s 2.75.

A variety of camera systems use 3D depth sensors to measure the “geometry” of a cow. By analyzing the angles of the posterior hooks and the spring of the ribs, these systems estimate BCS automatically every time a cow walks under the lens.

The ROI is staggering. Bewley highlights research showing 3D cameras can return 200% to 500% annually, costing roughly $1 per cow per month. This is because the camera detects a downward trend in condition two to three weeks earlier than the human eye. In the high-stakes world of transition cow management, those three weeks are the difference between a simple ration adjustment and a clinical case of ketosis.

The Gait Keeper: Early Lameness Detection

If BCS is about geometry, lameness detection is about symmetry. Tech systems use pose estimation to track landmarks on a cow’s body as she walks. The AI analyzes gait symmetry frame-by-frame, assigning a locomotion score based on how the animal moves.

In a traditional setup, a cow is often only treated once she is visibly “three-legged lame.” By then, the loss in milk production and the cost of treatment have already taken a bite out of the bottom line. Computer vision flags the asymmetric walker long before she becomes the lame walker, allowing for early intervention and significantly higher recovery rates.

Rib-Arrow Dairy in Tulare, Calif., has implemented the Nedap SmartSight vision technology.

“A lame cow used to be something you could see — she was limping,” Ribeiro says. “But the camera showed us we have problems with feet long before there is a limp. It’s like wearing the same running shoes for a year on concrete. That subclinical pressure on the joints, ankles and knees starts a decline we can’t visually pick up until it’s too late.”

The impact is most visible in first-lactation animals. These bulletproof heifers often hide discomfort, but the vision tech caught the subtle crooked gait that leads to chronic issues. At the start of the program, lameness prevalence in first-lactation cows was 6%. Today, overall and severe lameness rates have been slashed to just 2% — one-third of what they were.

Beyond the Cow: Management Visibility

The power of the camera doesn’t stop at the animal’s hide. Computer vision is now being used to monitor the environment that surrounds the cow:

Feed Availability: Cameras can determine exactly when feed events happen and, more importantly, when the bunk is empty, sending alerts to the feeder in real-time.
Bird Detection: Innovative systems use AI cameras paired with guided laser beams to detect and deter birds, protecting feed quality without the use of chemicals or loud noises.
Employee Safety & SOPs: In the parlor, cameras can monitor for missed post-dip events or track phone time, ensuring the farm’s standard operating procedures are being followed when the owner isn’t looking.

The Pitfalls: It’s Not All Plug-and-Play

Despite the promise, Bewley is quick to offer a reality check.

“Camera systems are not plug-and-play,” he warns.

The marketing brochure rarely mentions the physical problems that plague dairy tech: manure splatter, dust, ammonia corrosion and the rural broadband problem.

A single 4K camera stream requires 10 to 20 Mbps of bandwidth. Many rural farms struggle to get 25 Mbps for the entire office. To solve this, the industry is moving toward edge computing — where the thinking happens on the camera itself, only sending a small alert to the cloud — and the adoption of Starlink to bridge the connectivity gap.

There is also the garbage in, garbage out factor. An AI trained on clean, perfectly lit university cows will often fail when faced with a sand-bedded freestall barn full of shadows and dirty coats. Success requires models trained on real-farm data.

The Human Factor: Your Team is the Technology

Perhaps the most critical takeaway from Bewley’s insights is that the best camera system in the world is worthless if nobody acts on the data.

“The #1 predictor of precision technology success on farms isn’t the technology. It’s the people using it,” he says, noting every successful system needs a champion (someone who owns the data), a skeptic (to ensure the alerts are accurate) and a responder (someone with a clear SOP to fix the problem the camera flagged).

The Big Question: Should You Invest?

So, is it time to hang cameras in your barn? Bewley breaks it down into three categories:

Invest Now: If you have a specific, quantifiable problem (like high lameness rates) and reliable internet.
Invest Soon: If you are planning a renovation. It is 50% cheaper to build camera infrastructure into a new project than to retrofit an old one.
Wait & Watch: If your internet is unreliable or your team isn’t yet comfortable using data to drive daily decisions. Focus on wearables first.

The Bottom Line

Computer vision is no longer a someday technology. It is happening now. As labor becomes scarcer and the margin for error in dairy production becomes thinner, the ability to see every cow, every minute of every day, will become the baseline for the modern dairy.

“Technology should serve the animal and never lose sight of the cow,” Bewley exclaims.

The transition to computer vision doesn’t mark the end of the traditional herdsman; rather, it represents the evolution of the craft. By augmenting human intuition with digital precision, producers can finally reclaim the individual attention that large-scale operations often struggle to maintain. As the industry moves forward, the competitive edge will belong to those who can bridge the gap between the barn and the byte. Ultimately, while the engine of the dairy may be changing, the mission remains the same: providing the best possible care for the cow, one frame at a time.

AI in the Heartland: Why Data-Driven Precision is the Future of Dairy Farming

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:18:50 GMT

Technological advancement used to feel like a steady, manageable climb. Today, it feels like a vertical sprint. For many of us, the pace of change is dizzying. While the world moves at lightning speed, some of us are still operating on a technology resume built entirely on trial and error. We are the “unplug it, count to 10 and plug it back in” generation. It is a reliable method for a frozen router or a stubborn tablet, but the reboot strategy is becoming a bit more complicated as our world — and our farms — undergo a total digital transformation.

AI: The New Hired Hand

We now live in a reality where artificial intelligence isn’t just a buzzword in Silicon Valley. It is a hired hand in the heartland. This shift can be jarring for those of us who prefer the tactile nature of a wrench over the intangible nature of a cloud-based algorithm. Yet, even if we don’t move as fast as the latest software update, the industry we love is moving for us.

Nowhere is this evolution more evident than on the modern dairy farm. The barn, once a place of manual labor and intuitive guesswork, has become a high-tech hub of data and precision. We see it in the wearable collars that track a cow’s every rumination and step, acting as a 24/7 health monitor. We see it in robotic milking systems that allow cows to set their own schedules and in automated feed pushers that ensure a fresh ration is always within reach.

AI is now the silent partner in the parlor, analyzing thousands of data points to predict a health issue before a cow even shows a symptom. It is the vision technology in the barn that can spot a slight change in a cow’s gait — subclinical lameness — weeks before the human eye can detect a limp.

Protect Intuition with Precision

For a farmer who still believes in the power of a ten-second countdown to fix a glitch, this new world can feel overwhelming. However, the beauty of this technological surge is that it isn’t meant to replace the farmer’s intuition. It is meant to protect it. These tools allow us to be proactive rather than reactive.

The transition to a high-tech dairy isn’t about abandoning the values of the past; it is about honoring the legacy by ensuring its survival in a hyper-competitive world. We might still need to occasionally unplug a stubborn monitor and count to 10, but we do so knowing these digital tools are the keys to better cow comfort, higher efficiency and a sustainable future for the next generation.

The Invisible Perimeter: High-Tech Biosecurity in the Age of Bird Flu

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 12:10:01 GMT

In the heart of Tulare, Calif., Tyler Ribeiro is conducting an experiment in “mediocrity-free” farming. As a fourth-generation dairyman at Rib-Arrow Dairy, he has seen the industry evolve through a century of challenges. But today, the stakes have shifted. While the Central Valley sun and volatile markets remain constant pressures, an invisible threat moved to the forefront of the dairy conversation last year: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), or bird flu.

For a dairy milking 1,500 cows, the emergence of H5N1 in dairy herds represents a fundamental shift in how animal well-being is defined. It is no longer just about comfort and production; it is about the rigorous defense of the milk supply itself. At Rib-Arrow, the philosophy of being tech-forward has become the farm’s strongest shield against this mounting biosecurity threat.

Early Detection: The Digital First Line of Defense

The battle against a viral threat like bird flu begins with early detection. Ribeiro’s implementation of Nedap SmartSight vision technology and activity monitoring collars provides a level of granular oversight that was impossible for previous generations. While these systems were primarily installed to monitor locomotion — reducing the lameness incident rate in first lactation cows from 6% to 2% — their value in a biosecurity crisis is immense.

“A cow starts hurting long before we can see it with our eyes,” Ribeiro notes.

Tyler Ribeiro

(Rib-Arrow Dairy)

This same principle applies to viral illness. Before a cow shows clinical signs of HPAI, such as a drop in milk production or lethargy, her data — captured 24/7 in the NedapNow cloud platform — begins to tell a story. By catching subtle changes in activity or movement early, high-tech dairies can isolate animals and implement quarantine protocols before a virus has the chance to move through the entire herd. In the era of bird flu, data is the difference between a minor incident and a total operation shutdown.

Automated Perimeter

Biosecurity is often compromised by the movement of people and equipment. Rib-Arrow’s lean toward automation directly mitigates this risk. The HoofStrong automated foot baths, which have been in place since 2015, are a prime example. Because the system is fully self-contained and self-cleaning, it reduces the need for constant employee intervention and chemical handling.

(Rib-Arrow Dairy )

Similarly, Ribeiro’s three-pronged approach to fly control — using automated flash-sprays, baits and parasitic wasps — limits the presence of pests that can carry pathogens across the dairy. By automating these dirty work tasks, the dairy ensures protocols are executed with 100% consistency, creating a closed-loop environment where the risk of cross-contamination is significantly lowered.

Protect the Pipeline: A Strategic View

The challenges faced by dairies like Rib-Arrow are the focal point of the upcoming 2026 High Plains Dairy Conference in Amarillo. A critical addition to the lineup is the panel “Protecting the Milk Supply,” featuring experts like Dee Ellis from Texas A&M and New Mexico state veterinarian Samantha Holeck. Their work bridges the gap between the regulatory requirements of state-level safety and the daily reality of the parlor.

As Ribeiro notes: “I hate it when people show up and say, ‘You’re doing a great job.’ Show me where I’m missing.”

This mindset is essential for modern biosecurity. Protecting the pipeline requires producers to work alongside data scientists like Jason Lombard of Colorado State University’s AgNext to understand the science of staying open, which involves analyzing every touch point on the farm — from how calves are transported to how manure is managed — to ensure business continuity in the face of a biosecurity event.

(Rib-Arrow Dairy)

Reputation and Resilience

The final layer of defense against bird flu is communication. For a dairy like Rib-Arrow, transparency and clear communication are vital.

Ribeiro’s “data nerd” approach allows him to provide a real-time truth about his herd’s health. Whether it is downloading thousands of cells of data to analyze with AI or checking his phone app for a cow’s locomotion score, he is equipped to prove the resilience of his operation.

As the road through 2026 and beyond is paved, the goal remains the same as it was 100 years ago: healthy cows and a sustainable business. The difference now is the eye in the sky and the mountain of data are the tools ensuring the next generation of the Ribeiro family is still standing — and profitable — no matter what biological threats the world throws at them.

Could Lasers Help Keep Birds Out of the Feedbunk?

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:09:49 GMT

Where there’s feed on the farm, birds usually follow. These nuisance pests aren’t only an eyesore, but they can cause real damage in terms of feed loss and biosecurity risk.

For pigeons, starlings and sparrows, grain piles, commodity bays and feedbunks quickly become an all-you-can-eat buffet. In fact, a flock of 10,000 birds can consume up to 500 lb. of feed daily. While these critters certainly aren’t a new problem for dairies, a newer technology has emerged that may offer another way to manage bird pressure. And the interesting part? It involves laser beams.

A New Approach to Bird Control

The system, developed by iChase, uses cameras to identify birds in the area. Once a bird has been spotted, a green laser beam slowly sweeps across the ground, walls or feedbunk to spook the bird away. Because poultry rely heavily on their eyesight, the moving laser looks to them like something solid getting closer. Their instinct is to fly away from it.

According to the company, the system can be installed above feedbunks or mounted on farm structures to help discourage birds from gathering. As the laser repeatedly moves through the same spaces, birds begin to view the area as unpredictable and uncomfortable. Eventually, many avoid the area altogether.

The idea is similar to other deterrents producers have tried over the years, but the constantly moving light is designed to be harder for birds to get used to. Traditional approaches like predator decoys and reflective tape can work at first, but birds often adapt once they realize the threat isn’t real.

Another feature that helps the technology stand out is coverage. iChase states that a single unit can cover a large area, which may make it useful in places like silage bunkers or commodity barns where birds tend to gather.

Interest in the technology has also grown outside of dairy. Airports and warehouses have also used laser deterrents to reduce birds in sensitive areas. As the equipment becomes more available, agricultre companies are starting to explore how it might fit into other livestock operations as well. As farms continue looking for practical ways to protect feed and maintain cleaner facilities, tools like these are starting to draw interest.

Targeted Reproductive Management: Taking Calf Creation to the Next Level

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:26:36 GMT

Within the lifetimes of many current U.S. dairy producers, artificial insemination (AI), sexed semen, embryo transfer (ETU), ovum pick-up (OPU), and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) all have evolved to enhance dairy cattle reproduction.

Now, individual-cow monitoring technology is being used to drive the next wave of dairy reproductive improvement: Targeted Reproductive Management (TRM).

Dr. Glaucio Lopes, who leads the monitoring success team for Merck Animal Health, USA, , explained that TRM leverages individual-cow data that detects estrus activity to more selectively and effectively implement hormone-driven estrus synchronization protocols.

Using activity monitoring tools like SenseHub® Dairy, one example of TRM stratifies cows into two groups early in lactation: those that expressed a strong, spontaneous estrus cycle before the end of voluntary waiting period (VWP), and those that did not. If they did not, they are enrolled immediately in a fertility program like Double Ovsynch that includes timed artificial insemination at the end. If they did, they are assumed to be more naturally fertile, and are allowed more time to be bred upon observation of another heat cycle. If that doesn’t happen within a prescribed number of days, they too are then enrolled in a synchronization program.

In short, TRM provides more time for cows that expressed early lactation natural estrus before beginning hormone-based synchronization, and less to those that did not – essentially targeted the use of manual synchronization and timed insemination on cows that need it most.

Lopes said one TRM study showed researchers were able to decrease the overall use of reproductive hormones by 57%. At the same time, the likelihood of pregnancy at 305 days in milk was increased in second-lactation and older cows that did not show strong signs of estrus early postpartum.

Enrolling fewer cows in hormone-based breeding programs not only lowers drug costs and saves on labor, but also creates fewer physical disruptions. More cows are allowed to carry out their natural behaviors of eating, drinking, and resting without spending time in headlocks.

Researchers at the University of Florida put the principles of TRM to the test in two north-central Florida Holstein herds, the results of which were recently published in the Journal of Dairy Science . Dr. Ricardo Chebel and his team evaluated 539 first-calf heifers and 941 second-lactation and older cows.

The more mature cows were assigned a VWP of 40-41 days in milk, while the first-calf heifers had a VWP of 54-55 days in milk. Half of the animals in each age group were treated as a control group and enrolled in Double Ovsynch regardless of estrus behavior. This occurred at 68-69 days in milk for the older cows and 82-83 days for the first-calf heifers.

In the TRM group, older cows that had expressed estrus within the VWP were inseminated upon detected estrus starting at 50 days in milk, and first-calf heifers starting at 64 days in milk. If they had not been detected in estrus during the VWP, they were enrolled in Double Ovsynch at the same time as their corresponding parity in the control groups.

Re-insemination of open cows in the control group was based on visual or patch-aided estrus detection, while TRM cows were re-inseminated based on activity monitor feedback for estrus activity. This resulted in the open TRM animals being re-inseminated more quickly.

Among the results: more cows from the TRM group eventually calved and started a new lactation compared to the controls (82.6% versus 77.2%), and fewer of them were sold (15.5% versus 20.8%). The TRM cows also used an average of just 4.5 doses of reproductive hormones, compared to about 10.1 doses for the control cows.

Chebel noted that in this particular experiment, TRM improved gross profit per cow by $108 per head compared to the control animals. He said factors that contributed to that figure included improved pregnancy success – regardless of parity -- that changed culling dynamics; fewer cow sales that led to reduced replacement costs; and increased calf value created by the ability to target strategic semen selection toward the most fertile cycles.

The Top Three Biggest Mistakes When Using Crowd Gates

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 13:00:00 GMT

Crowd gates are often one of the most used tools on a dairy. Not only do they save significant time for employees, but they also help reduce the stress associated with moving cows.

However, just like any tool, crowd gates can be used incorrectly and can sometimes negatively impact cow comfort and welfare. Carolina Pinzon, a Dairy Outreach Specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, highlights the three most common mistakes she sees in crowd gate usage and provides practical strategies to avoid them.

Overcrowding the Holding Area

Occasionally, overcrowding the holding area happens, but Pinzon warns that prolonged overcrowding can negatively impact cow health, production, and welfare. This is especially concerning during summer when cows generate extra body heat and require sufficient airflow.

“Signs of an overcrowded holding pen include cows with their heads up, unable to plant their four feet on the ground, and looking restless and uncomfortable,” Pinzon says. “Short-term overcrowding can also result from misuse of the crowd gate, by employees pushing it too far forward and smashing the cows.”

To prevent overcrowding, Pinzon recommends balancing parlor and pen sizes, so cows spend no more than one hour away from their pens during each milking. Holding areas should allow at least 20 square feet per cow.

“If needed, a large pen can be divided into smaller groups,” Pinzon suggests. “While this means more trips to the parlor for workers, it significantly reduces the time cows spend in the holding pen. Additionally, short-term overcrowding can be alleviated by moving the crowd gate backward to provide more space for the cows.”

Being Careless

While dairy cows are typically gentle giants, they can be stubborn and slow to move. This, however, doesn’t justify using force. Moving crowd gates too quickly or applying electricity can cause unnecessary stress and fear for the animals.
Instead, Pinzon emphasizes the importance of calm and gentle handling. She advises guiding cows to the parlor without pressure or haste.

“Once the cows on one side of the parlor have exited, the crowd gate can be moved forward,” Pinzon says. “This regular adjustment is crucial to accommodate the changing number of animals and available space in the holding area. Automating crowd gates to move forward every time exit gates are open/lift can help reduce misuse.”

Pinzon recommends keeping crowd gates at least three feet from the cows to avoid pressing against their backs. She suggests using sound cues, like bells or ringing, to train cows to move forward, rather than relying solely on gate movement. If the gate gets too close, pull it back to give the cows more space before resuming forward movement. These practices promote a stress-free and productive environment for both cows and workers.

Workers Entering the Holding Area

Crowd gates are valuable tools for safely and efficiently moving cows toward the parlor entrance. However, when employees enter the holding pen to push cows, it can create unnecessary stress for the animals and put workers at risk of injury.

Pinzon highlights the importance of regularly training employees on proper cow handling and the correct use of crowd gates. She stresses avoiding the practice of entering the holding area to chase cows and instead maintaining a calm and consistent environment for the animals.

“Except for when loading the last cows of a pen and fresh cows, the door from the parlor pit to the holding area should remain closed during most of the milking process,” she adds. “This physical reminder is to discourage workers from entering the holding area. In addition, regular maintenance of crowd gates, prompt reporting of issues, and swift resolution of problems by management are crucial for proper gate function.”

Spotting these three common mistakes in crowd gate use and taking proactive steps to address them can significantly improve cow welfare, employee safety, and your herd’s operational efficiency. Regular maintenance, clear protocols, and proper training go a long way in preventing overcrowding and keeping things calm and stress-free for both cows and workers.

How AI Is Learning to Read Dairy Herd Data

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:24:58 GMT

What if a computer could predict which cows will go lame, how long a cow should stay in the herd or what a cow will be milking 220 days from now? Those possibilities are becoming a reality as artificial intelligence begins to move into everyday dairy management.

During a session at the Professional Dairy Producers conference, Jeffrey Bewley, dairy analytics and innovation scientist at Holstein Association USA , peeled back the curtain on how AI is already being used on farms and where the technology may be headed next. From predicting lameness to analyzing herd records in seconds, AI is revealing both the possibilities and the limits of this rapidly evolving technology.

Turning Farm Data into Predictions

At its core, AI relies on data. This machine learning system analyzes data points to identify patterns that can help predict future outcomes. On dairy operations, that ability to recognize patterns can turn everyday information into real management insights.

Bewley points to lameness detection as one example. The process begins by collecting thousands of videos of cows walking and labeling them according to whether the animal is lame or sound. As the system learns from those examples, it begins to recognize subtle differences in gait that signal lameness.

“It doesn’t know what a lame cow or not lame cow is unless somebody tells it,” Bewley explains.

Because the system has to learn what lameness looks like, extensive training is required before it can be used effectively. Over time, that training allows the system to flag cows that may be developing problems before they are visibly noticeable.

Lactation curves are another example. While the industry often uses a standard curve, every cow produces differently and every herd has its own patterns. Bewley explains how AI can study these differences and use them to predict how much milk each cow is likely to produce in the future.

“We could be able to predict what that animal will be milking 220 days from now,” he says.

That type of forecasting could influence future breeding strategies. If a cow is predicted to maintain high production late into lactation, a producer might hold off on breeding her. If production is expected to drop, then getting the cow pregnant sooner may make more sense. This information could help determine how long a cow should remain in the herd. By evaluating production, reproduction and health trends together, these predictive models could forecast when it makes economic sense to retain or cull a cow.

Experimenting With AI Tools

While there’s plenty of buzz about AI’s future, the technology is already showing up in everyday herd‑data applications. Bewley says it can scan monthly DHI reports and spot trends earlier. When he tried it on a herd summary report, the system kicked out a full KPI dashboard in seconds. While he notes the results aren’t always perfect, he says they offer quick, useful angles for herd management.

“It wasn’t that long ago where probably a quarter of my time was spent pulling up herd records and doing something like this,” Bewley laughs. “AI did it in a matter of seconds.”

He adds AI is not limited to just text-based analysis. Many of the tools farmers use every day actually has AI built into it. Activity monitors are a prime example. When the technology first appeared more than a decade ago, it felt futuristic to many producers, similar to how AI feels today.

“In 2008, wearable sensors looked like science fiction to a lot of people, but it was a new technology that was coming on board,” Bewley says. “Today, that same dairyman would tell you, ‘I don’t know how I ever managed my cows without my wearable technology.’”

Learning to Work With AI

As more AI tools become available, learning how to interact with them effectively will become even more important.

The quality of the output often depends on how questions to the system are asked. Providing detailed information creates more relevant responses.

“Instead of saying, ‘Tell me about mastitis,’ say, ‘I have a 500-cow herd and my somatic cell counts are going up; help me with a mastitis prevention protocol specifically for fresh cows,’” Bewley says.

At the same time, users need to remain cautious. AI can occasionally generate incorrect information while presenting it with confidence.

“It’s like your friend that thinks it knows everything,” Bewley says. “It can make some things up sometimes. Don’t take everything it says as right.”

For that reason, Bewely says AI should be viewed as a tool to assist decision-making rather than as a source for final answers. He adds farmers still need to verify information, question unexpected results and rely on their own management experience.

The Next Phase of Farm Technology

Looking ahead, Bewley expects AI to become easier and more natural for farms to use.

“We’re not going to have to go in and plug in complicated sets of codes,” he says. “We’re just going to say it into our phone, and it’s going to give you the list.”

At the same time, advancements in robotics are accelerating. Together, these technologies could further automate routine work while improving the speed and accuracy of management decisions.

Despite the excitement surrounding AI, Bewley emphasizes the technology will not replace the role of farmers.

“It’s a tool. You still make the decisions,” he says. “Artificial intelligence will never replace good stockmanship. It can’t replace relationships. It can’t be compassionate. It can’t replace your farm knowledge.”

Instead, AI will likely become another tool in the dairy management toolbox, helping producers analyze data faster, identify problems sooner and evaluate management options more efficiently.

Does AI Have a Place on the Dairy Farm?

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 15:04:00 GMT

If you read the title and thought, of course, Artificial Insemination has a place on the dairy farm, you’re not alone. To me, the acronym AI still means Artificial Insemination. However, for those outside of animal agriculture, AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. With the increasing use of technology on dairy farms, the “new” AI has become more relevant.

The Use of Technologies on Farms

In 2016, the dairy industry hosted one of its first conferences on data management. Since the American Dairy Science Association Discover Conference on Big Data, adoption of technologies in the industry has continued to grow. Data surveys indicate that around 70% of US dairy farmers use some type of precision automated technology on their farms.

With advancements in technology, managing and interpreting data has become more difficult. The increase in data and the technologies’ inability to interact with each other have been major barriers to adoption. Managing data and making more informed decisions are where AI could play a role on the dairy farm.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence is the ability of computer systems to perform complex tasks. One branch of AI is machine learning. Computer models that use machine learning learn from data and become more accurate as they are exposed to more information. Machine learning models analyze data to identify patterns and make predictions.

How is AI Being Used?

Artificial intelligence is used both within individual technologies and across multiple systems to help develop more user-friendly data reports. One area where machine learning is applied is in creating health alerts. Technologies that measure multiple parameters (e.g., activity and rumination) have been able to detect diseases more quickly. In one case, a system that integrated technology data successfully identified mastitis cases five milkings before the cow showed clinical signs. The ongoing development of these models can allow farms to detect diseases faster, produce more accurate milk quality reports, improve reproductive management, and increase feed efficiency.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Though technology data has proven to be beneficial in the daily operations of the dairy farm, some issues still need to be addressed. One of the top concerns for dairy farmers is data ownership. Stronger, more transparent frameworks are needed for data contracts with technology companies. Another issue is the need for a more educated workforce. The industry requires professionals who understand both animal science and data science skills to maximize the benefits of the technologies available.

Fighting Mastitis with the Help of Robots and Smart Technology

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:20:26 GMT

Mastitis remains one of the most costly and persistent health challenges facing dairy farms today, whether cows are milked in a parlor or by robots. In 2024, mastitis was estimated to cost the U.S. dairy industry more than $13 billion annually through lost milk, treatment costs and discarded milk.

As robotic milking systems become more common, new sensors and monitoring tools are helping detect milk quality problems earlier than ever. Even with these technological advances, the core principles of mastitis control remain the same. According to Douglas Reinemann and Carolina Pinzón-Sánchez of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, good hygiene, careful monitoring and timely intervention still form the foundation of effective mastitis management.

Clean Cows Still Matter Most

No matter where cows are milked, prevention still begins with cleanliness. In automated milking systems, that means ensuring the robot can properly clean and attach to the udder each time a cow enters the box.

“The cleanliness of the udder when the cow enters the robot has a big influence on how well that preparation process works,” Reinemann says.

Milking preparation is a critical step. Proper stimulation helps trigger milk letdown and allows teat cups to attach quickly and correctly. While premilking sanitation steps vary by robot brand, the goal is the same across systems: The robot must attach the milking unit to clean, dry and well-stimulated teats.

Postmilking teat disinfection is equally important. After milking, the teat canal remains temporarily open, leaving the udder more vulnerable to infection. Applying teat disinfectant helps remove bacteria from the teat skin and reduces the risk of new intramammary infections.

Routine equipment maintenance also plays a major role in mastitis prevention. Checking the accuracy of cleaning and sanitation cycles helps ensure the robot is properly preparing teats before milking.

“Equipment maintenance is nonnegotiable,” Pinzón-Sánchez says. “Milking systems must be serviced and tested regularly per manufacturer guidelines. Monitoring the accuracy of pre- and postmilking sanitation cycles ensures effective cleaning and prevents bacterial spread.”

How Robots Detect Mastitis Earlier

While mastitis prevention principles remain largely the same, detection looks different in robotic systems.

In conventional parlors, trained employees serve as the first line of defense. Those hands-on observations allow workers to quickly spot abnormal milk or signs of udder inflammation. But in automated milking systems, technology takes on that monitoring role.

Robots rely on sensors and algorithms to track milk quality and cow behavior. When the system detects patterns that deviate from normal, it generates an alert that a cow may be experiencing mastitis.

Automated milking system sensors commonly monitor:

Electrical conductivity of milk.
Milk color and composition changes.
Somatic cell count (SCC).
Quarter-level milk yield.
Cow visit frequency to the robot.

“These systems are very good at detecting abnormalities,” Reinemann says. “Sensor data can often identify subtle changes before clinical signs become obvious.”

Additional monitoring tools also help catch potential problems earlier. Activity monitors worn on collars, legs or ear tags track how cows move throughout the day. When a cow becomes less active or her behavior starts to change, it can be an early sign that something isn’t right. Often, these shifts show up before obvious symptoms appear, giving producers more time to take a closer look and respond if needed.

How to Interpret Alerts

Even with all the high-tech monitoring tools in an automated milking system, interpreting data the robots provide isn’t always straightforward. To make sense of what the sensors are telling you, Reinemann and Pinzón-Sánchez explain that it helps to understand two key concepts: sensitivity and specificity.

According to the pair, sensitivity refers to the system’s ability to correctly identify cows that truly have mastitis. A highly sensitive system detects most sick animals but may flag more healthy cows as potential cases.

Specificity, on the other hand, reflects how well the system identifies healthy cows. High specificity reduces false alarms but may miss some infected animals.

“No system is perfect,” Pinzón-Sánchez explains. “Increasing sensitivity can increase false positives, while increasing specificity can lead to missed cases.”

Fortunately, many automated systems allow producers to adjust these settings depending on herd conditions. When mastitis risk is elevated, increasing sensitivity may help catch more true cases. During periods of stable milk quality, higher specificity can reduce unnecessary alerts.

What to Do When the Robot Flags a Cow

Despite how capable automated systems have become, Reinemann and Pinzón-Sánchez emphasize that technology should support, not replace, human decision‑making. When the robot flags a cow, producers should:

Review the system alert and cow history.
Visually evaluate milk for abnormalities.
Palpate the udder for swelling or heat.
Take the cow’s temperature if illness is suspected.
Divert abnormal milk from the bulk tank.
Collect aseptic milk samples for culture or PCR testing.
Use cow-side tests such as the California Mastitis Test (CMT).
Consult a veterinarian before initiating treatment.

Blending Management with Technology

Despite the technology, successful mastitis control still comes down to good management. Robots can flag changes and catch potential problems earlier, but producers must still evaluate cows and make treatment decisions.

“These systems are excellent at detecting abnormalities, but they can’t diagnose diseases or recommend treatments,” Reinemann says.

He and Pinzón-Sánchez stress that successful mastitis management still relies on the basics: watching cows closely, keeping consistent routines and working with a veterinarian on prevention and treatment plans. When technology and good herd management work together, mastitis problems can often be addressed before they become serious.

For more on mastitis, check out:

From Handshakes to High-Speed Data: The New Reality of Dairy Lending

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:26:51 GMT

For decades, the relationship between a dairy farmer and a lender was often built on a firm handshake and a look at last year’s tax returns. But in the modern dairy landscape, the handshake has been replaced by a high-speed data transfer.

To the uninitiated, the mountain of spreadsheets, herd monitoring reports and feed inventories required for a loan might feel like a bureaucratic hurdle. To Ashley Vande Zande, senior credit officer for Compeer Financial, and Gary Sipiorski, an independent dairy financial consultant, that data is something much more powerful: It is a story.

Painting the Picture

“Detailed data helps paint a picture of your farming operation,” Vande Zande says.

When a loan moves from a farmer’s kitchen table to a lender’s desk, it travels through a gauntlet of departments from origination to underwriting to final funding. In those back offices, the people making decisions haven’t walked your pens or seen your new parlor.

The data acts as their eyes. Accurate, complete and detailed records allow a lender to develop financial trends. These trends aren’t just numbers; they are an analysis of the borrower’s balance sheet and earnings that identify hidden strengths and calculate true borrowing power.

Without the data, the picture is a blur; with it, the lender can see exactly where the operation stands today and, more importantly, where it can go.

The Cow-Side Connection

One might wonder why a credit officer cares about herd monitoring records or cow flow. For Vande Zande, these metrics are the leading indicators of financial success.

“Submitting herd monitoring or feed information allows us to drill down into the operation’s herd health and production,” she explains.

Consider a farmer who invests in improved cow comfort or a more precise ration. The immediate result is a spike in milk production. In the eyes of a data-savvy lender, that spike isn’t just a win for the cows; it’s a forecasting tool. Improved production trends suggest higher future revenue, which leads to better efficiency ratios. This historical data cements past performance and allows the lender to structure a loan that suits the operation’s specific repayment ability.

Furthermore, these records turn “invisible” assets into collateral. Detailed machinery listings and inventory spreadsheets provide a clear understanding of the assets available to secure a loan, giving the farmer more leverage and the lender more confidence.

The Consultant’s Checklist

Sipiorski, who has spent decades navigating the bridge between the barn and the bank, views data as the ultimate tool for financial soundness.

“Financial data are the only way a lender can determine a farm’s profitability,” Sipiorski says. “As long as a farm wants to borrow money, lenders will demand data.”

Sipiorski notes that while technology like RFID tags and computer outputs are great for management, the lender is looking for four financial pillars:

Solvency — Can the farm survive a market hit?
Liquidity — Can the farm pay its bills on Tuesday?
Profitability — Is there actual net income after the dust settles?
Repayment ability — Can the operation cover principal and interest without breaking?

Lenders may evaluate as many as 25 different items, ranging from debt per cow to the increasingly vital metric of debt per hundredweight (cwt) of milk. These numbers ensure that a loan is a ladder, not a weight. As Sipiorski bluntly puts it: “No lender wants to set up a farm to fail.”

The Partnership Model

At the heart of this data obsession is a shift in the philosophy of ag lending. For lenders like Compeer Financial, the goal isn’t just to be a source of capital but rather a partner in the operation’s future.

“We really want to partner with our clients, so they understand every aspect of their finances,” Vande Zande says. “We’re here to help crunch the data so they know where they stand today and where they can go in the future.”

By sharing data, the adversarial nature of the bank-client relationship disappears. Instead of a farmer asking for money and a banker looking for reasons to say no, the two parties work together to establish specific steps to work toward long-term goals. The data allows the lender to understand the industry factors, both positive and negative, that have affected the operation, allowing them to build a loan structure that survives the volatility of the dairy market.

The Bottom Line

Combing through data and financial planning can be an overwhelming part of running a dairy, but it is the only way to move from surviving to thriving. In today’s modern era, the most successful dairy farmers aren’t just experts at cow comfort or crop yields; they are masters of their own farm information.

When you hand over your data, you aren’t just fulfilling a requirement; you are giving your lender the tools they need to help you win.

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Data, Dirt and the 100-Year Legacy: Inside Rib-Arrow Dairy’s Tech Revolution

Data, Dirt and the 100-Year Legacy: Inside Rib-Arrow Dairy’s Tech Revolution

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 14:08:22 GMT

In the heart of Tulare, Calif., where the Central Valley sun can push the mercury past 110°F and the mud of a rainy season can challenge even the sturdiest boots, Tyler Ribeiro is conducting an experiment in mediocrity-free farming.

Ribeiro is the fourth generation of his family to steward a dairy legacy that spans over a century. Since 1994, the family has operated at the current Rib-Arrow Dairy site, but the operation today looks vastly different than the one his grandfather managed. With 1,500 milking cows, 1,000 Holstein-Angus crosses for beef and 800 acres of farmland, Rib-Arrow is a high-octane intersection of traditional animal husbandry and cutting-edge silicon.

Tyler Ribeiro

(Rib-Arrow Dairy)

“I am not one that likes to settle for mediocre,” Ribeiro says, standing in the middle of a barn designed with the precision of a wind tunnel. “We are pushing the systems we have, and we’re learning as we go. I haven’t got paid enough to tell you all the good things and none of the bad — we’re going through it as it is.”

(Rib-Arrow Dairy)

The Cow-Centric Blueprint

Walking through Rib-Arrow, it becomes clear every piece of steel and every line of code is centered on the cow’s perspective. This philosophy starts with the physical geometry of the barn. Ribeiro’s father and grandfather designed the entrance to the milking parlor to be narrow, widening as it opens up.

“It’s like being in a tunnel behind a big rig,” Ribeiro explains. “If you can’t see what’s in front of the truck, you’re hesitant. The way this is set up, as they’re walking in, they can see around the cow in front of them. It helps their load time speed up dramatically.”

Comfort is equally engineered. Along the top of the barn, an array of fans and cooling soakers manage the California heat. But these aren’t just on-off switches. The system uses eye-to-eye sensors. If a cow isn’t in a specific area, the cooling grid shuts off to conserve resources. In a closed-loop nod to sustainability, the water used to soak the cows and clean the lanes is captured from the cisterns used to cool the milk.

(Rib-Arrow Dairy)

Seeing the Unseen: The Locomotion Revolution

Perhaps the most significant bite Rib-Arrow has taken in recent years is the implementation of Nedap SmartSight vision technology. For a hands-on dairyman like Ribeiro, admitting that a camera can see better than a human eye was a hurdle, but the data has been undeniable.

“A lame cow used to be something you could see — she was limping,” Ribeiro says. “But the camera showed us we have problems with feet long before there is a limp. It’s like wearing the same running shoes for a year on concrete. That subclinical pressure on the joints, ankles and knees starts a decline we can’t visually pick up until it’s too late.”

The impact is most visible in first-lactation animals. These bulletproof heifers often hide discomfort, but the vision tech caught the subtle crooked gait that leads to chronic issues. At the start of the program, lameness prevalence in first-lactation cows was 6%. Today, overall and severe lameness rates have been slashed to just 2% — one-third of what they were.

Precision Management in the Cloud

The vision tech doesn’t work in a vacuum. It is paired with Nedap activity monitoring collars and the Cow Locating system. This tech stack allows Ribeiro’s team to not only receive an alert that a cow needs attention but to pinpoint her exact location in the barn. This data flows into NedapNow, a cloud-based platform that provides real-time insights.

Ribeiro has even refined the software’s parameters to match the biological reality of hoof healing.

“We found that a 31-day hold time wasn’t enough for a hoof to grow out and heal. We’ve moved to a 41-day sweet spot. If she’s still flagging after that, we know we need to look deeper.”

This level of precision changes the economic math of the dairy. Ribeiro points to a high-producing cow the system flags frequently.

“The guys ask why we keep bringing her in. I tell them, for a cow like that, I’ll pay $7 a month in maintenance to keep her in the herd and keep her comfortable,” he says. “We’re aiming for old cows — high-producing, healthy veterans.”

(Rib-Arrow Dairy )

Automating the Dirty Work

While the cameras watch the cows, other automated systems handle the grueling maintenance tasks that traditionally lead to labor fatigue. Rib-Arrow has used HoofStrong automated foot baths since 2015. Running five days a week and rotating between Formalin and a proprietary copper/zinc formula (LQA), the system is entirely self-contained and self-cleaning.

“It doses via schedule to keep the potency where it’s supposed to be, and then pressure pumps the manure and product out at the end of milking,” Ribeiro notes. “It keeps my people away from the chemicals and ensures the protocol is executed perfectly every single time.”

Even pest control has gone high-tech. Ribeiro uses a three-pronged approach to flies: baits, parasitic wasps and an automated flash-spray system. The sprayer, triggered by sensors as cows pass through, provides full-body coverage without wasting product or requiring an employee to stand in a cloud of spray.

The Human Element and the Future

Despite the heavy lean into automation, the human element at Rib-Arrow remains remarkably stable. Most of Ribeiro’s outside crew has been with the dairy for over a decade. The technology hasn’t replaced them; it has empowered them.

“The system shines a light on things you’d look at and say, ‘She’s healthy,’” Ribeiro says. “Now, we have to educate ourselves on what the data is actually saying. My guys have tablets in their Kubotas. My breeder has a tablet. We’re all looking at the same real-time truth.”

Ribeiro, a self-described “computer geek and data nerd,” isn’t finished. He’s already planning to install Nedap’s pass-through ID system in the parlor to replace older RFID tech that struggled with “noise.” This will pave the way for Nedap’s SmartFlow milk meters, closing the loop on individual cow performance data.

As Rib-Arrow Dairy moves toward an average lactation of 2.7 and beyond, the goal remains the same as it was 100 years ago: healthy cows and a sustainable business. The difference now is that Tyler Ribeiro has a digital eye in the sky and a mountain of data to ensure the next 100 years are even better than the last.

“I hate it when people show up and say, ‘You’re doing a great job,’” Ribeiro concludes. “Show me where I’m missing. Show me the holes. That’s what this technology does — it shows me where I need to work.”

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Exclusive: In the Eye of the Cycle, John Deere Charts a Path Through Ag’s Slump

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:25:36 GMT

After months of workforce reductions and sliding equipment sales, John Deere is reversing course, announcing it will bring 140 employees back to its Waterloo, Iowa, operations as demand ticks higher for its 8R and 9R tractors.

The recall comes even as Deere forecasts the North American ag equipment market will decline another 15% to 20% in 2026, underscoring the push-and-pull shaping today’s farm economy. Large equipment sales remain under pressure from lower commodity prices and tighter margins, yet pockets of global demand are forcing Deere to recalibrate production in real time.

In an exclusive interview with Farm Journal this week, Deere & Company President Deanna Kovar laid out how the company is navigating that tension: tightening its long-standing build-for-retail manufacturing model, adjusting output month to month and working to protect farmers’ equipment equity during a downturn.

At the same time, Deere is attacking costs where it can, reducing prices on 187,000 parts over the past two years and preparing to roll out a new lower-priced tier of replacement parts later this summer. The company is also testing a tractor powered by E-98 ethanol, technology that could eventually eliminate the need for Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) altogether while driving even more demand for the crops farmers already grow.

For Kovar, who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm before spending 26 years rising through Deere’s ranks, the stakes are personal. Now, just months into her role leading Deere’s Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, she is steering the company through one of the sharpest equipment pullbacks in recent memory, while positioning it for what comes next.

A Cyclical Business in a Prolonged Downturn

The ag equipment cycle has clearly turned. Industry data show steep drops in large equipment sales, and Deere’s internal outlook aligns with the broader trend.

“Deere is 188 years old, so we know we’re part of a cyclical business of ag equipment, but definitely we’re seeing similar numbers. Our expectations that we shared in our last quarterly earnings was that the North American equipment market would be down 15% to 20% again in 2026. We recognize the ag economy is in a tough spot at the moment, and we’re working hard to make sure we can help farmers become more productive and more profitable through using our equipment and technology solutions, but it’s tough out there.”

She says the Association of Equipment Manufacturers figures for 2025, which show sales of 4WD tractors fell nearly 42% and combine sales are down 36%, align with what Deere is seeing.

The significant slump in sales doesn’t come as a surprise to row crop farmers who’ve seen several consecutive years of declining net farm income following a record high in 2022. USDA’s first official forecast for 2026 suggests continued pressure and another year of declining net farm income, with not much relief on input prices and stagnant commodity prices. Kovar says Deere understands the financial strains producers are seeing.

“Overall, the outlook for 2026 is that farmers are going to continue to be under pressure from a commodity price standpoint,” she says. “We’re certainly seeing input costs somewhat flatten for producers, and, of course, many producers are grateful for the government payments that will help them start 2026 maybe in a better place than they would have without it. Certainly great yields last fall were a good positive thing for producers, but it’s still putting a lot of pressure on commodity prices today.”

For Deere, that pressure translates directly into lower equipment demand and tough decisions inside its factories.

Manufacturing Adjustments: Building for Retail in Real Time

Over the past year, Deere announced workforce reductions across multiple Midwestern facilities. Since 2024, it’s reported John Deere laid off over 2,000 employees in the U.S., with those jobs primarily located in Iowa and Illinois. Recently, it reversed course in a couple locations, announcing it would bring some of those employees back.

Back in January, Deere also announced it was returning 99 workers to the job in Iowa, impacting both its Davenport Works and Dubuque facilities. But Deere said this week it’s also bringing back jobs at its Waterloo facility.

“We’re constantly evaluating what we think the market will be. And it’s not an annual thing. It’s a month to month, a quarter-to-quarter opportunity. And yes, we just announced 140 workers to come back to our Waterloo operations. This is the operations where we make the drive trains for 8R tractors, where we pour the castings for the new high horsepower 9R tractors, where engines are made, and where we put tractors final assembly together. So we’re always happy when we can bring workers back into our factory. And it’s because we’re starting to see a little tick up in demand for those tractors,” she says.

Kovar says it’s not necessarily just a North American phenomenon. The uptick in demand is coming globally.

“We are seeing some signs that there could be some opportunities, but much of this is going to be iterative over time. It won’t be from a very low point to a very high point. We expect over time that we can start to see things normal,” she adds.

Kovar emphasizes Deere’s long-standing “build-for-retail” philosophy, avoiding overproduction that would flood dealer lots and depress used values.

“We’ve been in business for 188 years, so we’re always making sure that we’re being as efficient and effective as we can at building the quality products that farmers come to rely on. So we’re all always adjusting how we manufacture, how we make sure we have the quality checks and the automation to make sure we’re making every tractor as good as we can,” says Kovar.

She says the company is also working to forecast demand expectations and where that additional demand could surface. But she says for the past 25 years, the company has been focused on a build-to-order mentality, especially in the larger ag equipment space.

“We are a build for retail mentality,” says Kovar. “We don’t want to build it unless somebody wants it. So this has been something we’ve been working on for 20 years, and we will continue to be focused on really understanding the demand in the market and making sure we’re setting up schedules and plans to build for that amount.”

Equipment Prices: It’s About the Trade Differential

Few issues generate more coffee-shop debate than equipment prices. Farmers have seen machinery values dramatically climb over the past five years. Kovar points out that looking at sticker price alone misses the bigger financial picture.

“We’re always looking at making sure we’re delivering value for farmers when they buy our equipment, when they buy our technology,” Kovar says. “When we think about the price of equipment it’s really important we understand that farmers, when they buy a new piece of equipment, it’s really about the trade differential from the product they’re trading in to the one they’re buying, and if we were to lower the price of equipment, it would lower the trade-in value of their used equipment as well. We’re always very mindful of the equity farmers have in their equipment fleet and the fact it’s a huge part of their balance sheet.”

Not only does Deere need to be careful that changes don’t impact the trade differential, but she says the company is also focused on making sure there’s a balance between products being affordable and creating the value farmers expect.

That balance, of affordability versus protecting used values, according to Kovar, shapes Deere’s pricing philosophy in a down cycle.

Lowering the Cost of Technology and Parts

While base machine pricing remains complex, Deere is targeting affordability in other ways. The first, she says, is on the technology side, and lowering the upfront cost.

“We’re lowering the barrier to entry to amazing technologies like ExactShot fertilizer systems, See & Spray sprayer systems and a combine automation system so that more farmers can afford to get into the technology. These technologies are saving inputs, ensuring we’re getting all of the grain out of the field and increasing yields. That strategy to lower the upfront cost of those technologies, and help the customer pay for it as they get the value from it, is a huge step forward in allowing affordability of the technology.”

On repairs and parts, she points to self-service tools and direct price reductions. She says the company is constantly looking at the cost of parts for their equipment.

“Over the last two years, we’ve reduced the price on over 187,000 part numbers in the John Deere system. Later this summer, we’re going to be announcing a new tier of parts from John Deare that will allow us to give customers choice when they buy parts from us as to whether they want the traditional OEM, that likely has a longer life, or if they want to look at a lower cost option,” Kovar says.

Deciding between the two parts tiers depends on:

How much a farmer uses the machine
Equipment age
How long a farmer intends to keep that piece of equipment

Retrofit Kits: Precision Without the New Iron Price Tag

As new equipment sales slow and more farmers turn to the used market, Deere sees retrofit technology as a critical bridge, allowing producers to upgrade performance without taking on the cost of a brand-new machine.

Kovar says retrofit kits are designed to separate technology adoption from iron replacement.

“I think the beauty of retrofit kits is you don’t have to buy a brand new piece of equipment to get brand new technologies. Just last year we launched what we call our precision ag essentials kit, which is the foundation of our technology stack. It’s where farmers start to go from no precision to a more precision mentality, and this ability allows them to put a John Deere GPS receiver, a display and a modem on any piece of equipment, Deere or non Deere,” Kovar says.

The strategy fits squarely into Deere’s broader push to lower the barrier to entry for precision ag. By allowing a GPS receiver, display and modem to be installed on any brand of older equipment, the company is effectively expanding the addressable market for advanced automation and data tools.

“We’re seeing people put these kits on 20-year-old tractors and then being able to do things like AutoTrac, AutoPath and turn automation, section control, the things that can save 10% of inputs and make sure your stand is better in the spring and your weeds are deader during the season,” Kovar says. “This is a huge opportunity for every farmer to get more into precision. Once you get into that base of the technology stack, the sky’s the limit to be able to go to other products like ExactEmerge or See and Spray — these technologies that really drive savings to the bottom line for farmers.”

In a downturn defined by lower commodity prices and cautious equipment purchases, Deere is betting the future of precision ag won’t be limited to the newest machines on the lot, but will increasingly ride on tractors that have already been in the field for decades.

Right to Repair, EPA and DEF: Seeking Clarity

Right-to-repair and diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) rules have been flash points between manufacturers and producers with two major announcements from EPA.

In early February 2026, EPA made a right-to-repair guidance announcement guidance and actions supporting the right to repair for farmers and equipment owners, specifically addressing issues with Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) systems and emission controls. The guidance clarifies the Clean Air Act allows for temporary overrides of emission systems during repairs, prohibits manufacturers from restricting access to tools or software, and enables repairs in the field.

The following day, EPA announced the agency is demanding detailed failure data from major diesel engine manufacturers as it considers additional rules aimed at reducing DEF-related shutdowns and derates that have plagued farmers, truckers and equipment operators for years.

“I think if you step back and think about what EPA’s done over about the last nine months, there’s been two important messages. One was last summer when they gave voluntary guidance that said we should extend the time from when a customer might have an issue with their DEF systems and not cause them to go into an inducement or a derate within two hours, which was the original rule. We’re very glad EPA has come out and said we can extend that time to give farmers more time to maybe finish the field, finish the day before they have to execute a derate or go through a regen on their DEF,” Kovar says.

She calls it a huge opportunity for Deere and one to which the company is already responding.

“We’re in the process of making sure we can extent that time on all the equipment we’re producing. We’ll do that over the coming months and years to help make sure we’re extending that time and not putting people in jeopardy of having a shutdown opportunity,” Kovar says.

On off-road right-to-repair clarity, Kovar says EPA’s right-to-repair guidance announced in February directly responds to a formal request the company made to the agency in June 2025 .

“[EPS] had already shared that on-road equipment didn’t have to go to the original equipment manufacturer or an authorized repair shop to turn your tractor or your truck back on after you had a deratement issue. We said, ‘Hey, we have tools that a farmer can do this on their own, but the way we read your rules, we believe we need you to tell us it’s OK.’ We’re grateful that last week EPA came out and said, yes, it is OK for off-road equipment for farmers to fix their own issues. We’re in the process of making sure John Deere Operations Center ProService, which is our self-repair tool any farmer can access, by early March, mid-March, we want to have the ability for a farmer to, if they run into a deratement issue on their tractor or combine or whatever, use Operation Center Pro Service to get their tractors back up.”

If DEF Goes Away, It’s Not a Quick Switch

With political discussions swirling around eliminating certain environmental regulations, and President Trump specifically stating he wants to see those regulations removed on equipment , some farmers wonder whether equipment could quickly be built without DEF systems.

When Trump was in a roundtable with farmers in December, he claimed removing those requirements on equipment would prevent breakdowns and make equipment cheaper. During the one-on-one interview with Kovar, Farm Journal asked if removing DEF on equipment would bring down prices.

“We have to really understand what they mean and how they want to go about it before we can really answer, does it make equipment cheaper? I think we’ve spent 15 years perfecting the system we have today, so we’ll have to continue to understand how far back do we think we’re going to go, how long would it take us, because we don’t have all of the technologies that don’t have DEF today,” Kovar explains. “If it were called tomorrow, we couldn’t start building tractors without it the next day.”

Removing DEF is not as simple as flipping a switch on the assembly line. Instead, she says Deere is focused on making sure farmers have the ability to repair their own equipment if it would go into derate. She thinks that’s a huge step forward in solving some of the issues that farmers have had with DEF.

Deere Tests an E-98 Ethanol Tractor

Even as debate continues in Washington over DEF requirements, Deere is exploring a future that could bypass the issue entirely.

While the company says it remains engaged with EPA on next steps surrounding DEF and emissions policy, Deere is also investing in an alternative fuel platform, an ethanol-powered tractor designed to run on E-98. The tractor will debut at Commodity Classic in two weeks.

“We’re not just thinking also about diesel, right, we also considering how might we fix this problem another way. And that’s an ethanol tractor we’ve been using across Iowa and other places. It’s early for us, but the idea that we could use E-98 to run a tractor, it’s so clean you don’t need diesel exhaust fluid to run it. We’re early in trying to pioneer what is an alternative to diesel that would allow a farmer to grow the fuel they put in their tractor to grow next year’s crop. It’s something we think we need to continue to talk about. There is a ton of infrastructure that would need to follow to allow an E-98-type fuel to flow and be on farm, but we think it’s an opportunity in the long run to help agriculture grow the fuel they use to grow the food we all eat.”

Deere confirms the early results are promising.

According to Deere, the limiting factor isn’t the engine technology itself, it’s the infrastructure needed to support it.

“Do we have the fuels available? Do we have the on-farm ability? Are the fuel companies ready to deliver it to the farm? At this point, there is a much bigger system challenge that will have to work,” Kovar says.

Advocating for Demand: Ethanol, Exports and E-15

Turning the ag economy around, in Kovar’s view, is about demand, both domestic and global. Not only is Deere working on equipment that could run with higher blends of ethanol, but Deere is also advocating for more demand.

“Certainly, we’re focused on helping farmers grow more with less. At the same time, we’re focused on helping to make sure there are markets for the crops our producers sell. We certainly spend a lot of time advocating for agriculture and for producers to have access to markets. We’re grateful for all of the trade deals that have happened here recently. We’re hopeful they start to materialize, and we see more and more grains flowing outside of the U.S. in exports. We also know we’ve got a huge opportunity here in the U.S. to drive ethanol and renewable fuels,” Kovar says. “We’re focused on making sure we’re using our voice at Deere to advocate for agriculture to not only feed the world, but fuel it. It starts with E-15, which we are hopeful we can get across the finish line at some point very soon. But it can’t end there. We have to continue to advocate for renewable diesels and an ethanol future, so we have to make sure farmers can sell their grains at a price that’s profitable, and it’s all about creating demand.”

The Next Five Years: From Data Collection to Real-Time Decisions

For Deere, which sees itself as a technology company, Kovar says she also sees Deere as a smart industrial company. With a focus on technology, she thinks the future isn’t about a single breakthrough machine, but rather about what happens behind the scenes in the data.

When asked what the biggest shift will be over the next five years, Kovar points to the evolution of information rooted in data.

“I think if you look back over those 25 years of technology, data has been such an important part of it. It started with yield maps, yield monitoring and binders on a shelf and has evolved over time to a cloud-based system. Everything’s connected. With Deere, it’s about John Deere Operation Center and how farmers can leverage that data, share it with partners, with their seed dealer, with their ag retailer, with the banker and with their landlords and have this really cohesive opportunity to bring all of the data they have in agriculture into one place,” Kovar says.

Personally, she sees the next step involving Deere helping farmers move beyond timely insights to timely decision-making.

“How do we help [farmers] get insights, timely information, that helps them make the best decision they can make in that moment on their unique piece of land in the middle of wherever they are farming and really give them confidence the data can help them drive to even better decisions,” she adds. “If we’re going to help them be more productive and be more profitable, it really starts with all the decisions they make. I think this next three to five years is a huge opportunity for us to make sure we are connecting all of their data in one place and helping them make really important decisions in real time that help them become more.”

Instead of one sweeping, industry-altering change, Kovar sees steady gains driven by machine learning, automation and in-the-moment decision-making, sometimes by the operator and sometimes by the equipment itself.

“I think that’s a huge part of the next three to five years, and those decisions happen because they’ve consciously made them or the machines are making them. If you think about See and Spray, it is deciding whether that’s a weed or a plant and only spraying the weed to save 50% to 60% of the herbicides,” Kovar says. “Those kind of in-the-moment decisions are a huge opportunity over the next 3 to 5 years as computer vision and machine learning compute and all of these things continue to accelerate at a pace that is very hard to keep up with.”

For Deere, the future isn’t just bigger iron or even more automation, it’s about connecting every data point on the farm and turning it into actionable insight, fast enough to matter in the field.

Watch the full interview here:

How Victory Farms Uses Smart Tech and Beef-on-Dairy to Boost Profit

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:22:16 GMT

In the heart of Milbank, S.D., Victory Farms stands as a testament to strategic adaptation and unwavering dedication in the U.S. dairy industry. A trifecta of families — Kevin Souza, Dave Nuss, and Peter Orrade — has fostered this flourishing dairy operation. Amid an industry often characterized by fluctuating milk checks and rising costs, Souza and his team are charting a compelling path forward, marked by technological prowess, genetic advancement, a vibrant community spirit and sharp business acumen.

Originally feed consultants hailing from California, these families entered the dairy industry ambitiously and bought an existing farm in 1998. Starting with 1,300 cows, the operation quickly expanded, adapting to the needs and challenges of the evolving dairy landscape. Currently, Victory Farm milks 5,700 mostly straight Jerseys, with plans to expand to 6,200.

Kevin Souza and Greg Bohn

(Victory Farms)

Tech-Driven Efficiency: A Farm Where Every Animal is Monitored

Victory Farms has embraced technology as a cornerstone of its operational philosophy. In 2020, the farm implemented the SenseHub collar system with sort gates for its mature cows, significantly enhancing efficiency in identifying cows for breeding and treatment.

“We wanted to find the cows that needed breeding quicker and the cows that needed treating quicker,” Souza explains.

The positive impact was so profound that a few years later they extended this activity monitoring to their calves, placing tags on every animal from birth to mature cow. Souza says this comprehensive monitoring system has yielded remarkable results.

“We were treating less calves,” he states, noting that they now use preventative measures such as rumen boluses for calves, eliminating the need for antibiotics in their youngest stock. This proactive approach has not only reduced human error and treatment costs but also demonstrated a clear return on investment, particularly in improved animal health outcomes. “Our actual treat treatments went down, and death loss went down.”

(Victory Farms)

Nurturing People and Community: The Heart of Victory Farms

Beyond advanced technology, Victory Farms thrives on a deeply ingrained culture of valuing its 48 full-time employees.

“Our motto is, take care of the cows, and they take care of you. And we’re the same way with employees,” Souza emphasizes. With long-term staff, including a herdsman who has been with them for 27 years, the farm provides housing, generous vacation and regular gestures of appreciation like monthly pizzas and Christmas dinners. Souza’s daily presence, greeting shifts, underscores a commitment to acknowledging and supporting his team, recognizing “there’s no way we could do this without them.”

This community-first approach extends beyond the farm gates through a unique 4-H leasing program. Inspired by his wife, Suzanne, an Extension specialist for Big Stone County, Minn., Victory Farms leases dairy calves to 20 local 4-H kids annually. This initiative not only provides invaluable agricultural experience to youth, including many from non-farm backgrounds, but also fosters a positive image of dairy farming.

“It just turned my whole idea around about agriculture,” one former participant shared, highlighting the program’s profound impact.

Strategic Growth and Diversification: Bright Spots Amid Industry Crossroads

Facing the U.S. dairy industry’s current challenges, Victory Farms is strategically pursuing “bright spots” to ensure long-term profitability. While maximizing milk production and components remains a top priority (with the herd averaging 70 lb. of milk at 5% fat and 4% protein), Souza has keenly embraced the lucrative beef-on-dairy market. Through an extensive embryo program, the farm strategically breeds its crossbred herd to beef semen, generating significant revenue from day-old beef-cross calves.

Souza’s goal is to eventually produce all dairy replacements through embryos, allowing more uteruses to be dedicated to beef-on-dairy. This meticulous management of heifer inventory has allowed Victory Farms to reduce its replacement heifer numbers by 1,000 while maintaining herd size, further optimizing costs. The farm’s commitment to genetics, working closely with Select Sires and genomic testing all Jerseys, ensures that only the healthiest and most productive animals contribute to the herd.

“I make bulls to send to Select Sires, to pay for my IVF program, to make better heifers,” Souza says, highlighting his dedication to genetic advancement.

A Sustainable and Optimistic Future

As Victory Farms expands to 6,200 cows, it does so as a closed herd since 2015, prioritizing sustainable, internal growth. Operating in South Dakota, Souza appreciates the “more self-contained” nature of dairying, with reliable local services and effective manure management, turning a potential challenge into a resource that local farmers eagerly request.

Despite the current volatility in milk prices, Souza remains remarkably optimistic about the future of dairy. His strategic investments in technology, his unwavering commitment to his employees and community, and his innovative approach to genetic and market diversification position Victory Farms as a beacon of adaptability and prosperity, demonstrating how a forward-thinking dairy can thrive at the industry’s crossroads.

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3 Ways To Protect Your Ag Business from Cybersecurity Threats

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:59:13 GMT

Agriculture is in the bull’s-eye for threat actors trying to access business information. But as Chris Sherman says: “Our keys in the visor mentality” has many farmers trusting too much and putting too much at risk.

Sherman is the founder of Tech Support Farm, an IT and cybersecurity consulting business who works with farmers, co-ops, custom harvesters and more ag businesses to shore up their systems, lock down their sensitive information and stay attuned to emerging risks.

The FBI has listed agriculture as a critical infrastructure for cybersecurity.

So where do most farmers leave themselves vulnerable to hackers? Sherman shares these:

1. Email

Sherman points to email as the No. 1 priority for farmers on where to start in taking cybersecurity seriously.

“The amount of information and data we are sending via email leaves every farmer at risk — from our FSA staff, agronomists, banks and more,” he says. “Emails can be intercepted, all contents can be exposed, and no one is the wiser. It would be like a rural mail carrier, and when he drops the mail someone stands there opening it, reading it and closing the envelope and putting it back in the mailbox. Foolhardy to be using the free email services such as Gmail, Yahoo and others.”

Here are four steps to shore up your email:

Get a domain
Get a commercial email provider
Get a filtration software (which monitors what comes in)
Get a DMARC compliance service (which manages outbound emails, so no one spoofs you and encryption is done properly)

As an example of why this should be prioritized, Sherman tells the story of a farm business working on a land deal.

“A dad and son were just about ready to sign, and the dad got an email from the bank, at least it appeared to be from the bank, but it was a spoof encouraging them to e-sign,” he says. “And everyone signed, and it drained the bank accounts and blew up the deal.”

2. Be aware of your personal information shared, and embrace “herd immunity”

All to often, farmers don’t have passcodes on their phones.

“That’s like leaving your credit card at the bar,” Sherman says. “For some reason in agriculture we are running multimillion dollar businesses on residential-grade infrastructure.”

He says by the nature of the business, enrolling in government programs, immigration workforce programs (such as H-2A) and more, make your address, phone number and email readily accessible.

“It’s a wealth of opportunity for threat actors. We can’t leave our doors and windows open,” Sherman says. “So you have to protect yourself, and encourage your friends, neighbors and business partners to do the same. If we are all reducing our individual risk, we are reducing the overall risk.”

3. Use high-quality passwords

Sherman says good passwords are must-have on all your accounts, including your Wi-Fi.

“Too often, farmers have their password just be a duplicate of the network name. Or if a farmer’s favorite tractor is a John Deere 4450, 4450 is his pin for everything,” he says. “When we are on the internet, it’s like being in the big city, and you have to act accordingly.”

Embracing Innovation in Dairy Farming: The Visionary Journey of Bilow Farms

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 13:50:02 GMT

Dairy farms are continually seeking ways to enhance productivity and efficiency on their farms. This drive for improvement is particularly evident in the dairy sector, where embracing new technology plays a crucial role in advancing operations.

For the family-owned Bilow Farms LLC in Malone, N.Y., this meant making a conscious decision to upgrade their milking parlor, a move that highlights their commitment to innovation and sustainability.

Vision for the Future

Bilow Farms, which now milks 5,100 cows daily, set out with a goal in mind.

“One of the ways I’ve always done business is by having a goal. I asked my GEA rep for a picture of a rotary parlor; we enlarged it and hung it on my office wall so I could study it and make it out goal to build,” says Vincent Bilow, co-owner of Bilow Farms, along with his wife, Trudy; their son, Andrew; and daughter, Jessica Kelley.

The photo allowed owners and employees of Bilow Farms to envision their future. The goal behind a new parlor would lower their carbon footprint, as well as become more cow-friendly and labor efficient.

With that came the decision to build a green site facility that included a new milking center along with two 2,000-cow freestall barns; in July 2023, their vision became reality with the first turn of the farm’s 100-stall GEA DairyRotor T8900 parlor.

“When looking at parlors we visited several farms that had rotary parlors and did research,” Kelley shares. “We not only visited locally but also farms in Wisconsin to prepare for the size and brand of parlor to purchase.”

Bilow Farms has certainly come a long way from milking in a tie-stall barn. In 1999, it added a double-12 parlor and milked 2,150 cows.

Bilow shares that they chose to build a rotary to eliminate cows walking a long distance to get to the parlor.

“Cows seem to be more content on a rotary,” he says. “They seem to enjoy it and it’s a better experience for them.”

Kelley adds that since transitioning to the rotary, their cows are a lot calmer.

“They are also more relaxed when they come off the wheel. Milk production has gone up 10 to 12 pounds per day and our somatic cell is down significantly,” Kelley says. “We have also found we have feet and leg issues have improved with the cows since we are milking more cows per hour, and they are spending less time in the holding area.”

Forward-Looking Partnership

After touring other rotaries and talking with other producers, the family liked the ease and efficiency of GEA rotary. But ultimately installing a rotary parlor helped conquer their biggest challenge: labor.

“Our old parlor was very labor-inefficient,” Bilow says. “With this new parlor, our goal it to have three people in it. We’ve added the FutureCow Prep System, which we believe will greatly increase efficiency. We have also added the Udder Mister automated teat dip spray arm on the back end of the parlor.”

Bilow shares that their employees have adjusted to the new parlor well and seemed less stressed because they don’t have to push the cows to get into the parlor.

Goals are what drives Bilow Farms — and the family share their set goals:

4.5 seconds per cow unit attachment.
Milk 750 cows per hour.
25,000 lbs. to 28,000 lbs. of milk per hour.

Currently, Bilow Farms produces six tanker loads of milk a day. The family shares that they have a strong GEA dealer nearby, and their long-standing relationship with the company is something they value.

“They worked with my dad dating back to the Surge days. He put in the first pipeline in our area in 1966. When we built our previous parlor in 1999, we used a GEA dealer, and I wanted to stick with the brand,” Bilow says.

When it came to making the purchase, longevity played a factor. Bilow wanted the parlor to last for this generation and the next.

“This farm should be efficient for 20-plus years,” he says. “One of our goals is for our employees to have more time with their families. This parlor will allow them to work less.”

Bilow says if he had to describe his new parlor in one word it would be magnificent. The next purchase for this family farm is to build a dairy cow and pre-fresh barn.

“We are currently trucking all of the dry and fresh cows to the original freestall barn,” Kelley shares.

Incorporating innovative technologies, the Bilow family’s journey exemplifies how dairy farming can evolve to meet modern challenges while honoring traditional agricultural values. Through careful planning and execution, they not only boost productivity but also enhance the quality of life on their farm, setting a high standard for efficiency and innovation in the dairy industry.

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A Robotic Revolution in Dairy Farming: Ned-Tex Dairy's Journey

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 12:23:59 GMT

Producers are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to enhance productivity and efficiency. Implementing new technologies in dairy farming requires a careful and thoughtful approach. The decision to upgrade a parlor is not made lightly. Here’s a peek into one operation’s journey toward increased dairy productivity and what was learned along the way.

A Robotic Leap Forward
Head south to Stephenville, Texas, and Roeland Stoker of Ned-Tex Dairy says they got to a point where they felt they had maxed out efficiency with their previous double 15-parallel barn.

“Our initial goals were to expand our herd without having to increase labor and to utilize the space we currently had,” he says.

(Ned-Tex Dairy)

They retrofitted their operation in June 2021 to incorporate 12 Lely Astronaut A5 robotic milking systems. Two years later they added three more to complete their barn.

“We were very interested in utilizing milking robots for large herds in Texas. We would have to hire more staff dedicated to milking if we were to expand our herd, which is getting harder and harder to find good people to effectively milk cows,” Stoker says. “The robot never calls in sick or oversleeps for their shift. Each cow goes through the same SOP for milk prep, harvesting and post treatment 24/7 365.”

Being immigrants from the Netherlands, Stoker’s parents, Roel and Deanne, were very familiar with the Lely brand.

“One of our local dairy service providers Thomson Services became a dealer for Lely and installed robots in two different dairies before installing ours,” he says.

(Ned-Tex Dairy)

Benefits of Robotic Milking Systems
In return, Stoker says they have increased milk production since installing robots.

“We have always been a high producing herd, but the robots help our cows achieve higher and more sustained peaks with the customized feed tables for each individual cow based on her milk production. With the NEDAP collars, we are able to more quickly identify heat cycles and health concerns, so shortening that response time is so valuable. Our conception and preg rates have steadily increased over the last four years,” he shares.

Stoker notes he handles most of the maintenance himself, sharing that his Lely dealer offers help for their monthly, quarterly and yearly maintenance.

“I try to do most of the work I can, so that I can better understand the equipment,” he says.

Tradition and Innovation
Ned-Tex Dairy currently still milks 100 cows in a conventional parlor.

“It has been beneficial to have both systems on site to help us be efficient and effective for our entire herd,” he says. “Some cows’ milk speed or udder profile are not ideal for robot milking, but they still are great cows for your herd. Also, some cows’ udder profile changes the later they are in their lactation.”

When it comes to the future, Ned-Tex Dairy plans to expand their herd from within.

“With the reduced stress on our herd, we anticipate our replacement ratio to be offset an extra year over time,” Stoker shares. “Pairing that with our increased efficiency in reproduction, we can grow the ideal herd in size and genetics for our facility.”

Ned-Tex Dairy’s journey exemplifies the transformative power of technology in agriculture, paving the way for others to follow. Embracing innovation not only serves immediate productivity goals but sets a foundation for sustainable growth in the future.

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Enhanced Dairy Farm Efficiency: A Look at Jon-De Farms' Transition to Rotary Milking

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 11:35:34 GMT

In the ever-evolving world of dairy farming, producers are consistently looking for ways to amplify productivity and boost efficiency. Implementing new technologies in dairy farming requires a careful and thoughtful approach. For three forward-thinking producers, the decision to upgrade their parlors was not made lightly.

Drive for Efficiency
Jon-De Farms, located in Baldwin, Wis., embodies a forward-thinking approach to dairy production. In 2023, Jon-De Farms completed the construction of their DeLaval 60-stall rotary. Prior to this new development, the family milked 1,350 cows using two herringbone parlors – a double 10 and a double 16. The main reason for the upgrade was the need for greater efficiency.

“We felt like we weren’t milking enough cows given the inputs we had,” explains Mikayla McGee, the general manager of Jon-De Farms. Since their second parlor was built in 2000, she shares their labor costs have increased significantly.

“It’s hard to manage that many people and direct operations across two parlors,” she says. Both her and her father, Todd Doornink, had always envisioned a rotary as part of their strategic plan, dismissing the idea of robots due to the required scale of their farm.

Making the Choice
The family visited various rotary setups in Wisconsin before making their decision. While equipment and technology were not the deciding factors, McGee says service and parts availability played crucial roles. Ultimately, they chose DeLaval, which was conveniently located nearby.

Two-years post-installation, the family is pleased with their choice, particularly after increasing from a 40-stall to a 60-stall rotary for added flexibility.

“Having that extra downtime just makes our schedules easier,” McGee says.

One major goal of installing the rotary was to reduce the number of employees required on the farm. Although the impact was not as dramatic as anticipated, the number of working hours decreased, contributing to a better work-life balance. The technology was user-friendly, although McGee says the addition of the DeLaval TSR post dip sprayer was the biggest adjustment.
The new setup also improved herd health management. Previously, their vet spent long hours traveling between two barns.

“Our vet used to get here about five in the morning, and we wouldn’t get done until about two o’clock, and he’d kind of go back and forth between the two barns,” she recalls.

Now, they just catch cows off the rotary through the DeLaval sort gates to handle any herd health issues.

Milking now takes five hours, allowing employees to learn other responsibilities.

“Everyone is kind of cross-trained now, which really helps with worker satisfaction,” McGee notes, adding they have achieved their goal of becoming an employer of choice.

While examining return on investment for various purchases differently, building the new parlor was a clear necessity for Jon-De once they realized the inefficiencies of maintaining two separate parlors.

“Just the underlying efficiency that we gained right away out of the gates was amazing,” she says. “We saved a lot in one year just from reduced labor spending.”

With labor costs reduced for John-Dee, their new focus now shifts to feed costs. Previously outsourced, cropping work is now handled in-house with McGee’s husband, Matt, taking charge.

“Labor and feed are the two biggest costs,” she explains. “We feel we’ve tackled labor with the rotary, and now we’re honing in on feed costs.”

Jon-De Farms’ strategic move to a rotary milking parlor illustrates how thoughtful technology integration can drive operational efficiencies in dairy farming. Their experience serves as a testament to the profound impact that technological upgrades can have — enhancing productivity, enriching employee satisfaction and redefining cost management.

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New Genetic Tools Address Reality of Cow Longevity

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 21:47:14 GMT

The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding’s (CDCB) 2025 industry meeting at World Dairy Expo drew a crowd of nearly 600 in Madison and online. The research presentations and producer panel focused on the work CDCB has pledged to accomplish as well as the on-farm impact.

Milking speed, released as an official evaluation as of August 2025, will remain separate from net merit. As the available data set grows, the next step is integration with automatic milking.

“The heritability for milking speed was estimated to be 42%,” says Kristen Gaddis, Ph.D., CDCB geneticist. “Even with a fairly modest data set we can get relatively high reliabilities already at the start.”

When it comes to calf health, John B. Cole, Ph.D., says genomic evaluations for respiratory disease and scours in Holsteins and Jerseys are up next.

“They’re going to be based on producer-reported data from the field,” Cole says. “These evaluations will help us produce healthier calves that will move from birth through the growth phase, and then they will enter the milking string at a higher rate than less healthy calves. That’s going to let you make the most of your investment in your genetics program and your calf program.”

Cole urges producers to continue submitting complete data, and reminds that opt-in is required for CDCB to use the information.

According to Ashley Ling, Ph.D., lameness research is two prong: hoof-health evaluations (grouped infectious/non-infectious lesion incidence) and a novel mobility measure from camera and AI systems. The mobility work, she says, shows milk loss rises with lameness; preliminary heritability is moderate, suggesting selection can help alongside management.

Using What We Know to Let Cows Live Longer

Albert De Vries, Ph.D., University of Florida, is examining genetic gains in production to answer the question: Why are cows that are able to stay much longer in the herd not staying longer in the herd?

He cautions against lifetime as the target: “You want to maximize profitability per unit of the most limiting factor, and a reasonable metric for that is profitability per cow per year.”

When it comes to on-farm factors that correlate with longevity, here’s what three producers have to say:

Glenn Kline (Y Run Farms LLC, Pa.) – His team uses beef-on-dairy and IVF to concentrate replacements from top females. “Back in 2011 we started on genomic testing, and boy, that’s made a huge difference on our herd,” he says. “We’ve been using beef on dairy to keep our lower production cows using beef, and we use IVF to try to make better heifers of the good ones.”
Eric Grotegut (Grotegut Dairy, Wis.) – Calf management, upgraded facilities and hoof work are factors he attributes to better longevity, achieving a replacement rate of 25. “There are a lot of external factors, but in general, I try not to make too many heifers,” he says. “It just makes the culling easier. Instead of culling problem cows or culling lower performers, genetically they’re definitely able to stay longer.”
Kristen Metcalf (Glacier Edge Dairy, Wis.) – Metcalf stresses the importance of numerous traits and indexes to suit a variety of management styles. “I think it’s all part of the farming perspective, right? We have different dairy farms, we have different preferences, and we have these great new technologies and tools that let us filter for the traits we want. Why not leave them as long as the data is there? Everyone farms and manages differently.”

CDCB’s pipeline continues to expand what genetics can accomplish. Whether cows actually stay longer still hinges on day-to-day choices: heifer supply discipline, hoof/mobility focus, calf wellness and using the right index for the farm’s constraints.

A Real Conversation About Enhancing Dairy Farm Efficiency with Precision Management

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 20:50:06 GMT

In today’s rapidly evolving world, technology has woven itself into the fabric of various industries. The dairy sector is no exception, with innovation at the forefront of improving efficiency and farm management. Precision management technology provides dairy farmers with unparalleled tools for optimizing operations and enhancing productivity.

Expert Insights at the Forefront
Technology is not only a conversation starter, but an area that dairy producers are extremely interested in at World Dairy Expo. Earlier today, Dan Meihak, a seasoned commercial product specialist at Lely North America, along with myself, brought depth to this conversation on technology during a Lely webinar taped live at World Dairy Expo.

With more than 11 years of experience, Meihak shares how Lely’s advanced technology supports smarter decision-making by providing precise, actionable data that assists farmers in optimizing care and productivity of their herds. On the other hand, as a co-owner of Bohnert Jerseys in East Moline, Ill., I took my expertise on the farm level and my role as a dairy editorial director to bridge practical knowledge with agricultural journalism.

Practical Strategies for Smarter Farm Management
So, how does precision management translate into everyday practice on a dairy farm? By integrating precision management technology, farmers can analyze data-driven insights to improve the care and management of their cows. Here’s how:

Data-Driven Decision Making: Precise data allows farmers to make informed decisions about feed, health monitoring and milking processes. This fine-tuning ensures each cow is given optimal care while maintaining overall farm productivity.
Optimized Resources: With technology, farmers can maximize the efficiency of their resources — be it water, feed or manpower — to bring to cost savings and improved sustainability.
Enhancing Cow Welfare: Precision management ensures each cow’s needs are met in terms of health, nutrition and care, which directly translates into better milk yield and quality.

By bringing these elements together, precision management not only enhances the productivity and sustainability of dairy operations but also ensures the well-being of the herds.

Precision management technology represents a pivotal advancement in modern dairy farming. By leveraging expert insights and implementing practical strategies, farmers are empowered to make smarter, data-backed decisions that benefit both their business and their livestock. As the dairy industry continues to evolve, harnessing technology remains crucial to driving efficiency, performance and care in dairy farming.

To watch the full webinar conversation between Meihak and Bohnert, click here: Webinar Episode Summary - 2025 Lely LIVE Webinar Series

A Fresh Perspective on Young Dairy Farmers and the Digital Revolution

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 14:33:37 GMT

When I first started writing about how digital technologies would transform the nature of dairy farming, I was struck by the fact that on farms it resonated with the under-30s but received a cold response from their elders. In family farm groups milking 2,000 to 20,000 cows, it was usually the son or daughter who engaged and became excited about what technology could do, and, more importantly, how it would change the nature of their work. In deciding to return to the farm, they were often not motivated by the prospect of doing the same jobs that fill 14-hour days. Instead, they were looking for work-life balance and seeking smarter ways to get the job done, not just opportunities to provide physical labor.

While dairying might still be a tradition-bound industry, this generation is driving a quiet transformation. Curious, tech-savvy young farmers see innovation not as a disruption but as an opportunity.

Recent studies underscore a clear trend: Younger, better-educated dairy farmers, especially those managing larger herds, consistently demonstrate more positive attitudes toward e-Extension and digital tools. In Europe, young dairy farmers (particularly in the 25 to 44 age bracket) overwhelmingly believe information technology makes farming easier, with nearly two-thirds already using some form of IT on their farm.

Young dairy farmers are more likely to have encountered digital technologies in their academic or professional training, and they are implementing robotic milking, IoT devices, smart AI cameras and data-driven management systems to enhance productivity and ensure sustainability. The technology is not just for cows. Farmers are adopting soil moisture sensors, remote monitoring of crops and weed detection software, helping them optimize inputs while significantly boosting forage and grain yields on the farm.

An article in the Journal of Dairy Science (August 2024) shows how a European “Living Lab” found that farmers, young ones in particular, value technologies that promote autonomy, competence and ease of use. They prefer solutions that help shape tools that provide convenience, enhance understanding of on-farm problems and foster self-reliance. In other words, young dairy farmers are not blind adopters; they critically evaluate technology through the lens of usability and fit.

Despite their enthusiasm, young dairy farmers face real obstacles. Technology and connectivity costs, limited infrastructure and gaps in digital literacy, particularly in rural communities, often impede adoption. Their openness also reflects awareness of organizational support. Studies have found that peer networks, Extension services and government trust significantly influence willingness to adopt new practices.

Young farmers on smaller farms face particular challenges that I hear about often. Their hope was that technology would allow them to manage the farm remotely and supplement farm income with a second job. The reality, however, is that technology adoption will still favor larger farms and consolidation, especially when it requires more sophisticated tools. Recent activity on social media platforms such as Reddit confirm this.

One young farmer commented: “Usually new technology is too expensive to be worth it for small/medium farmers.”

Another added: “Most producers are small to medium... How innovations operate in those environments should be a deliberate objective of extension services.”

These reflections reinforce that cost and access remain significant hurdles even for those eager to embrace change.

Some of the work I’ve been involved with and published online, particularly on my LinkedIn , suggests the producers of the future will rely less on the university they attended, the wealth of their parents or their general knowledge, and more on their ability to leverage AI, specifically to write prompts that generate the most accurate responses from ChatGPT or other LLMs.

Looking forward, the next steps.
Young dairy farmers are redefining the milk industry, not just on the farm but also by collaborating with startup and scale-up innovations. They are eager to adopt tools and systems that make dairy production smarter, more efficient and more sustainable. AI studies suggest the farmers of the future will require very different skills. Yet the progress of young producers taking over from their parents will depend on supportive policies, inclusive design, accessible training and investment in rural digital infrastructure.

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