My family bred polled Holsteins for 30 years, working away in fits and starts carefully crossing the limited number of polled families in the breed. In the last few years of his dairy career, until the cows were sold late last year, my father put greater emphasis on the trait, using mostly polled bulls in […] Read more
Tag Archives technology
Editorial: Dealing with disruptive technology
Finding agriculture innovation triggers for Africa
The continent doesn’t have access to many of the inputs of developed countries, but that is changing
On much of the African continent, 15 years ago there was an almost total absence of landline telephone technology. Now, with smallholder farmers as much at the forefront as any of their urban small business counterparts, the landline situation remains the same, but the bandwidth of Africa is abuzz with smartphone communications that have transformed […] Read more
The big data dairy challenge
The dairy sector is showing how machine learning and artificial intelligence systems can convert raw data into insight
Dairy farm software and equipment is increasingly turning to the power of machine learning and big data sets to bring new tools to farmers. Large, established companies and startups are bringing their scale and creativity to bear on the challenge and the results are opportunities for on-farm management farmers haven’t seen before. Why it matters: […] Read more
Fancy tech has to work
Great ideas promoted by ag-tech startup companies have to have a practical place on the farm
Ensuring new products work at the farm level is critical for making business ventures profitable for both investors and clients, says a spokesperson from AgLaunch, a Tennessee-based investment company focused on growing agricultural start-ups. More specifically, they say, that means engaging networks of farmers both prior to and during the development of a new agricultural […] Read more
Lessons from farm data innovators
Where do you start with data management on crop farms? Three farmers who use data extensively say to start with what you can manage and make sure that the system is set up from the start to supply quality data into whatever system you choose to manage it. Why it matters: Sensors and better recording […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
