PLATTSBURGH — Technology in agriculture is ever-evolving according to the team behind Adirondack Farms.
Cornell Cooperative Clinton County Executive Director Linda L. Gillilland said technology and AI advances in agriculture are exponential and change on an almost daily basis.
“Remember that farmers are life-long learners by necessity, agriculture is a continuous story of adaptation, mitigation, and resilience. Farmers may like to grumble but the reality is we get down to business and move forward,” she said in an email to the Press-Republican.
“Here are just a few examples on our local farms that incorporate AI and Technology: Orchards using computer vision and AI to prune and harvest, sheep grazing under solar panels, dairy farms use robotic milking, vegetable farms use drones to make use of precision spraying, livestock farmers who incorporate wireless fencing/containment and that the farmer can rotate livestock into different pastures to prevent overgrazing using their smart phones.”
Managing partner at Adirondack Farms Shane St. Cyr said their farm uses a variety of technologies across the farm.
Some cows at the farm are fitted with a special necklace that can track their activity, vitals and even monitor their rumination and milk production.
“We’ve got animal monitoring software and animal monitoring technologies that tell us about the milk production and components of the milk. It gives us insight into the cow’s day,” he said and compared it to FitBit.
On the crop side, they use precision technology to plant their crops, “we know exactly the seeding rate per acre … we know our yields per acre at harvest, and we’re currently also using some drone technology to scout crops and to help plant cover crops and things like that.”
Rumination is a good indicator of a cows health according to St. Cyr, “much like deer … they take in forage and then during a rest period they do what’s called ‘ruminate.’ So they will bring up a cut of that of that feed and rechew it and and then bring it back down into another stomach for another part of their digestive process.”
St. Cyr said the technology has been on the farm for about five years and that it’s still evolving.
“It started just as activity monitoring in the cows, and then as technology has improved and as research has improved, there’s been add-ons to that. So what was first activity then became lying activity, then became rumination, then temperature sensing, and other things like that.”
Before the wearable tech trend hit the bovine population, St. Cyr said the work was all done manually, and still is for some cows, the main difference is how the technology is used to assist people, not replace them.
“Before technology, people were used as well as some other indicators, … that’s what we would primarily use years ago. Today, we still do that. People are an important part of this. So now it’s people working with technology, and every new technology tends to bring improvement to how we operate.”
Emily Starceski, a herd manager at Adirondack Farms, said the benefits of the tech outweigh the challenges.
“Benefits would be having a good herd of animals. We have a lot of cows here, so it’s helping us do an even better job of taking care of their health and things like that,” she said.
The challenge is the learning curve according to Starceski, “getting everyone on board with the task, especially if we’re really used to doing other things, and then just making sure that technology is set up for you.”
Starceski said technology on farms is a lot more common than people realize.
“I think most farms that you stop at would have more technology than you would think. Some of it might be really basic stuff, but for a lot of us, it means the world,” she said, at Adirondack Farms they utilize a cloud-based software to feed the cows. “We used to use a piece of paper and had to make updates manually and do a lot more difficult math every day.”
Now it’s all done via personal tablet according to Starceski, which makes it easier for everyone to be able to feed cows.
While the technology may seem new, change in agriculture is anything but new according to St. Cyr.
“Technology and change has been a part of ag and dairy for over a century. Whether it was moving from horses to tractors, from hand milking to milking, so it’s always been what’s the next step,” St. Cyr said.
With technologies come efficiencies and improvements to knowledge in the industry, according to St. Cyr.
“With those things comes increased partnership with our veterinarians, our nutritionists, and other stakeholders. So every step forward is a change that is welcome and that we look forward to, and that helps us to improve everything: how we do crops, how we work with our teammates, how we work with our outside vendors, and how we work with our animals.”
Artificial Intelligence is one of the latest technologies to enter the industry, according to St. Cyr.
“I think it’s going to touch every industry. AI is a very popular topic now,” he said, “I think some of these companies we work with, some of the software we use is exploring that, so I’m I’m hoping that that will be a positive, and and that that that AI will help us reach those conclusions even sooner of what this information is telling us and what we can glean from it from it in a positive direction.”
Starceski said she prefers to do things on her own.
“It’s popping up in a couple different places like our herd management software,” she said “I haven’t used it a lot yet, but I think there’s a couple of people on the farm right now that’ll use it just to help them out in a pinch. But for the most part, I’m more comfortable building things on my own for right now.”
Gillilland said people make use of AI without even realizing it.
“Farmers use artificial intelligence to make data driven management decisions using it to forecast air and water quality, weather events, reduce chemical and fertilizer waste, and of course, to optimize crop yields and herd health,” she said in the email, “The USDA mandates the use of RFID technology in ear tags to monitor interstate movement and/or health of cattle and bison over 18 months of age. RFID tags are a visual/ readable ear tag as well as electronically readable ear tag.”
St. Cyr said the dairy industry is constantly looking for new ways to improve.
“The technology we use is a step in that direction. Whether it’s animal monitoring, whether it’s environmental control through fans and curtains, everything we’re doing and all this technology that we are investing in is to become more efficient,” he said, “To be better stewards of the land, to. Be better farmers, better neighbors, and that’s for Adirondack, and and that’s by and large for the New York area as a whole.”