A south-west Victorian dairy consultant is encouraging famers to start using AI and learn how technology can benefit their businesses after attending a major international conference.
Sander Nijskens was sponsored by DemoDAIRY Foundation to attend the 4th International Precision Dairy Farming Conference in Christchurch. He was one of more than 350 attendees from 22 countries to hear more than 100 scientific and industry presentations covering wearables, robotics, computer vision, automation, data, and more.
Mr Nijskens, who grew up on his parents’ dairy farm at Terang and now lives in Geelong where he runs K2 Agri which helps ambitious dairy farmers to progress, said the conference offered practical technology opportunities and ideas from around the world that could be implemented on Australian dairy farms.
“One of the big messages I got was that a lot of farmers already have technology such as collars but could get a lot more out of using that technology,” he said. “We work out return on investment on products but do we end up using all the features and benefits of the product?
“I came away thinking that there are significant opportunities to get more out of technology.”
Mr Nijskens encouraged farmers to start with Chat GPT. “You can use it as a sounding board to ask questions, for writing processes on farm, to analyse data or research a particular topic. Don’t take it as gospel, but people need to try it out.”
He added that new technology such as Halter virtual fencing was not just about a return on investment. “A Dairy NZ study was presented on a group of early adopters of the technology and their main ticket out of it was the lifestyle benefits,” he said. “The return on investment wasn’t the biggest thing for them.
“Farmers need to understand why they’re investing in technology. If it’s for lifestyle benefits, that’s fine, but be clear about what technology is going to bring to your business.”
Mr Nijskens predicted farmers would be using more camera-based technology in the future and was impressed by a display on how to score the body condition of a cow by filming her.
Another highlight was an AI backing gate that works out density in the cow yard and adjusts the gate opening.
Mr Nijskens said it was one of the best conferences he has attended. “They had experts from all around the world and lots of choice of topics. I would definitely consider going again.”
He thanked DemoDAIRY Foundation for its sponsorship and backing the mission to bring cutting-edge global knowledge home to dairy farmers in south west Victoria and across Australia.