Artificial intelligence [AI] has made its way into milking sheds as a tool for the rural sector.

Agritech company Herd-i have made a system which detects lameness in cows and, according to a local farmer, it’s “bloody accurate”.

The technology consists of a camera and a computer programme – when a cow exits the milking shed, the camera films it, and the programme analyses the way it walks.

That video gets compared to data from thousands of other ones, and produces a lameness score.

The comparison data is all human-generated, said Herd-i chief executive Liz Muller.

“We use vets trained in the DairyNZ lameness scoring system, they look at videos of cows and assign a lameness score to them.

“As the system captures and scores more cows, it learns from the data points and becomes more accurate over time,” – that’s the artificial intelligence part.

“Basically, we use cameras to identify when a cow is starting to walk differently, which is the early signs of an animal health problem.”

Lameness, a condition caused by hoof lesions which makes it difficult and painful for cows to walk, can cause the animals to produce less milk and take longer to calf.

But identifying lameness has been a tricky and time consuming practice thus far – traditionally, cows are assessed for it in herds, not individually.

Carew farm manager Hein Cronje said Herd-i condenses all the important information into an easy-to-read overview.

“With this system, the overseer, manager, can sit in front of the computer and [see] what’s going on, monitoring small changes from one milking to the next with each individual cow.

It takes 40 minutes for a herd to make its way through the shed, but instead of standing watch the whole time, he can focus on other jobs and watch the videos Herd-i records after milking.

He said Herd-i also functions as a staff training tool.

“On all the previous farms I’ve worked on, my frustration was that you’d fetch the cows out of the paddock, and you’d see some that would be lame.

“But no one would do anything about it, because junior staff don’t know what to do about lame cows, as in the past it’s been more of a senior staff requirement.

“With Herd-i we can teach the younger staff what to look for using the videos as training.”

Kintore Farm has been a testing site for the tech for over a year now, and is helping with Herd-i’s next endeavour – body condition scoring.

It’s a work in progress for now, but Cronje said technology like it is “where things are going” for farming.

“Some farmers are old school, they still believe in their pen and paper and if it works for them, that’s fine.

“But for me, I can quickly use this technology to see where we are, and where we’re headed, picking up lame cows feet before it gets any worse as Herd-i detects changes very quickly.”

Muller said the farmer feedback for their product had been “really good” so far.

“As a general rule, dairy farmers are really embracing technology and AI, more than the general population.

“[They] understand that farming is becoming more complex, with more compliance requirements and challenges around staffing.

“The technology is just there; it’s like an eye in the sky, it does the work for you.”

Herd-i are looking for 100 farmers willing to trial the new Body Condition Scoring system in their sheds. They’ll get free installation of the system, and pay half price for a year of the standard subscription.

“We’ve put out something pretty simple to start with, and want feedback from farmers on what more [they’re after].”

By Anisha Satya