Dairy Robotics is designing an all new animal health monitoring device with an advanced milking solution that uses artificial intelligence (AI).
Based in Athy, Co. Kildare, the start-up was founded by Cormac McHugh in January 2020. With a total of 1.6 million dairy cows in Ireland, Dairy Robotics recognise the need for a new technology supporting Irish farmers, while saving costs and improving animal health. The company’s objective is to bring improved technologies to the dairy sector for enhancing production and solving the labour shortage.
Manufacturing two devices for better animal health, the plug and play device is based around Body Condition Scoring (BCS), which is an essential farm management tool. BCS is a technique to assess how thin or fat a cow is on the determined scale.
It is measured by high quality 3D images of the animal’s back and hindquarters that are then analysed. Through an ear tag, the animal health data processor renders the images of the animals and sends them to the cloud to be processed. The images are scored, the health of the animal defined, and the results are available to view via the app. The app’s database provides trends and feedback to the farmer.
Dairy Robotics are tackling labour shortage issues with the usage of AI when it comes to milking cows.The tech is able to identify individual udders for better cup attachment and monitoring any changes to milk output per animal. Health observations can also be done using AI and advanced algorithms on data gathered by the system. The benefits include cheaper milking per cow through innovative design, reflecting 30% more cost-effectiveness than competitors on four chamber systems.
Dairy Robotics is now participating in the AgTechUCD accelerator programme, with plans to deliver its product in mid-2023.
Sources: AHDB, Dairy Robotics, AgTechUCD
