Additionally as part of the conference, Our CEO, Ian Wheal, joined a really interesting panel discussion looking at how we can best support suppliers and producers to operate more efficiently in the animal agtech space.
The main discussion was around companies like Breedr being able to support farmers and ranchers to make better decisions, improve practices and open up new opportunities. However one clear message stood out, tech needs to have the farmer and rancher at the core.
Although data is essential to be able to make decisions, ranchers really need insights. It is possible to collect hundreds if not thousands of measurements but without feedback and insights to their herd, what use is the data? It needs to be simply captured and translated into clear messages in order to be able to take real action on the ranch.
Many ranchers are asked for various types of data, most of which is not in a common format. Standardised metrics are required to ensure that capture and interpretation at farm level is simplified.
One of the key audience questions really brought this together. Talking about having standardised data is ideal, but how do we come together to fix this?
- Collaboration across the industry including tech companies, breed societies and other stakeholders
- Adopting tech is the first hurdle, user experience and ease of use is essential to hook users from the start
- Data feedback and useful insights up and down the chain is essential to make decisions that will improve bottom line
- Incentives to collect data in the form of payments, improved on farm profit or time saving is essential
Using management software like Breedr is the beginning of this journey. Individual animal data recording from birth to the rail supports everyone within the supply supply chain including packers, processors and producers.
Historically it could take years to implement management changes with minimal feedback but real time data allows changes to be made instantly. Whether its small changes such as tweaking feeding regimes to improve productivity or changing up genetics on the dairy to improve efficiency from carcass reporting.
Find out more about joining a Breedr backed supply chain by contacting us at support@breedr.co
